New York's Welcome to the War Commissions

An historic event or rather a succession of events
which will be remembered and talked of long after the
great war is ended, is the reception of the War Com¬
missions to this country from France, Great Britain and
Italy. On Wednesday, May 9th, New York welcomed
the French mission headed by M. Rene Viviano, Vice
President of the Council of Ministers, and Marshall
Joffre, the great soldier of France who turned back the
hosts of Germany and saved democracy from extinction.
Marshall Joffre who, as the hero of the Marne, will
stand for all time as the soldier who won the most mo¬
mentous battle in the history of the world, was acclaimed
with tremendous enthusiasm to the very end of the
route on Fifth Ave., the home of Henry C. Frick, where
the commission were guests during their stay in New
York.

Two days later, Friday May nth, the British war
Commission headed by Arthur J. Balfour, Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, and formerly Prime Minister of Great
Britain, arrived. The reception of the British Com¬
mission was no less enthusiastic than that of the French,
and on both occasions the streets were lined with hun¬
dreds of thousands of people eager to give the visitors
the very heartiest of welcomes. The buildings all along
the way of the procession from the landing place at the
Battery to the City Hall, and from there to the end of
the route at the residence of Vincent Astor on Fifth
Ave., whose guests they were, were decorated with all
the colors of the Allies and flags of these nations in
abundance. The sight was inspiring and will be remem¬
bered as an event of exceptional interest.

Mayor Mitchell on both occasions welcomed the com¬
missions in speeches which could not be excelled for their
happy and exceedingly well expressed sentiments. Joseph
H. Choate, the grand old man of New York whose death
a few days later was so deeply mourned accompanied
both the missions and presented them to the Mayor.

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