That statement of policy in the naval appropriation act of 1916--"a most unusual place," said the President in an address at Seattle--was in line with the policy of the Government from the day of Wilson's inauguration. It was the authorization for the international agreement looking to a reduction of armament contained in the Treaty of Versailles. The Bryan treaties, ratified by every European country except Germany, which insured cooling time and opportunity for discussion in a world forum, were a long step toward settling international differences by reason rather than by resort to war. It was about the time those treaties were proposed that Winston Churchill, First Lord of the British Admiralty, suggested a "naval holiday." In my first report in 1913, reiterated in every subsequent report, I declared: "It is not a vacation we need, but a permanent policy to guard against extravagant and needless expansion." I recommended then that "the war and navy officials, and other representatives of all nations, be invited to hold a conference to discuss whether they cannot agree upon a plan for lessening the cost of preparation for war" and added this observation: It is recognized that the desired end of competitive building, carried on under whip and spur, could not be effective without agreement between great nations. It ought not to be difficult to secure an agreement by which navies will be adequate without being overgrown and without imposing over-heavy taxes upon the industries of a nation. Long before the match was struck by the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand, President Wilson, Ambassador Page and Colonel House were taking steps which, if Germany had been willing and Great Britain and France had sensed the coming conflict, might have averted the World War. To that end in the early part of 1914, President Wilson sent Colonel House abroad with letters to the Kaiser and the heads of the British and French governments, with whom earnest conferences were held. President Wilson and his associates in 1913-14, as this shows, had the vision of world agreement for peace to secure which he and the representatives of other free nations signed the treaty in Paris in 1919. "The last thing Germany wants is war," said the Kaiser to Colonel House, just three months before he precipitated the conflict. The Kaiser was obsessed at that time, so Colonel House reported, with the thought of what he called "the Yellow Peril." The Kaiser said: "The white nations should join hands to oppose Japan and the other yellow nations, or some day they will destroy us." That fear, or simulated fear, and his statement that Germany could not hastily join a peace pact so long as 175,000,000 Slavs threatened his empire, furnished the excuse for brushing aside the suggested agreement to prevent war.