Second, that all ships ought to be convoyed. The President had been of this opinion for a long time, and had insisted that it was essential to give protection to shipping. The General Board had strongly recommended convoy, and I favored it. But, as I told Admiral Sims, I had taken this matter up with naval officers in the Department, and there was division of opinion, most of them seeming to agree with the British Admiralty, which apparently opposed the convoy system. It had not been adopted abroad. Admiral Sims seemed pleased with his mission and instructions. And the only official instructions he received were those I gave him. But, someone may ask about the sensational statement in his letter that he was given the explicit admonition, "Don't let the British pull the wool over your eyes. It is none of our business pulling their chestnuts out of the fire. We would as soon fight the British as the Germans." I never heard of that until I read it in Sims' letter of January 7, 1920. Later, testifying before the Senate investigating Committee he stated that the remark was made by Benson, who afterwards in Paris made a similar statement. "I will admit that I had completely forgotten the incident," said Sims in regard to the latter. "It was recalled to me by a member of my staff who was present, and who heard it. I think that the reason I did not remember that distinctly was because I regarded it as a personal idiosyncrasy of the Admiral. I had known the general opinion that he was intensely anti-British, but it did not affect me particularly." "I have always had the best possible personal relations with Admiral Benson," he continued. "I regard him as an upstanding and honest man who has exceedingly strong convictions and who is very firm in adherence to those convictions. I believe everything he has done during the war has been done conscientiously, and to get along with the war." Benson said he could not recall just what was said; that he strongly approved Sims' selection, but probably used "very forcible language" in impressing upon him the seriousness of the situation and the importance of being very careful that "his feelings toward the British did not lead him into any indiscretion." He denied strongly that his words could be interpreted to mean anything else. In view of these statements and the known fact that Admiral Benson and everybody else in our navy earnestly coöperated with the British, and that Benson had a large part in arranging this coöperation before Sims reached London, I think there is no occasion for any further allusion to the remark. On the last day of March, a week before war was declared, Admiral Sims and his aide, Commander J. V. Babcock, boarded the steamship _New York_, entered upon the passenger list as "S. W. Davidson" and "V. J. Richardson." Their fellow voyagers had no idea that "Mr. Davidson" was an admiral of the United States Navy going abroad on an important mission, and "Mr. Richardson" was his aide.