One topic, the emergence of the United States as a colonial power, dominates the correspondence on this reel. On December 5, 1897, Smith wrote Wendell P. Garrison that he feared the United States was going to annex Cuba and Hawaii. Smith was in Washington in the interval between the "Maine" disaster and the declaration of war, and he found no war spirit among his acquaintances. He felt that the sinking was being used by politicians to intensify American support of the revolutionists. He suggested to friends in the British Parliament that they seek to effect a settlement between the United States and Spain, and advised them not to count too heavily on the sudden show of Anglo-American amity. Several journals and news syndicates asked Smith to write for them about the role the United States was assuming in world politics. In August of 1898 a number of newsmen wrote in answer to Smith's inquiries about the "yellow press," and Benjamin sent a detailed account of the patriotic fever that had inspired widespread display of the American flag and the proliferation of patriotic pictures and souvenirs commemorating the "Maine." Smith's work for the Weekly Sun included a search for British literary works to reprint. Some other topics mentioned in the letters are Canadian copyright, the sale by municipalities of utility rights, Canada's reluctance to support the Imperial Navy, and the removal from ofice of the principal of Upper Canada College in 1895 without due compensation.