ce of Mr. von Bethmann-Hollweg was
pictured by the Gerard celebration in Berlin.

"Then came the decision for ruthless submarine
war. The first time in his ambassadorial service
was Mr. Gerard surprised and the men who
entertained him were also surprised for they
dreamed of and wished for quite other things. It
is incorrect, if it has been stated, that at the
time of the Gerard celebration ruthless submarine
war had already been agreed on. That came later."

[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AFTER THE BANQUET GIVEN
AMBASSADOR GERARD IN BERLIN ON JANUARY 6TH, 1917. PROBABLY THE
ORDERS FOR THE RESUMPTION OF "RECKLESS" SUBMARINE WAR HAD BEEN
GIVEN WHEN THIS LOVE-FEAST TOOK PLACE.

_Sitting, left to right_--Von Wermuth, Mayor of Berlin;
Ambassador Gerard; Zimmermann; Von Sydow, Minister of Commerce.

_Standing, left to right_--Unknown; Consul General Lay; Commander
Gherardi, U. S. N.; First Secretary Grew; Unknown; Count
Montgelas; Solf, Colonial Minister; General Friedrich, in charge
of prisoners of war; Isaac Wolf, President of American Association of
Commerce and Trade; John B. Jackson, former Minister to Cuba.]

But I did know that ruthless submarine war was coming, knew of
the orders given, and this is proved not only by my reports which
are still secret, but by what I told not only many people in
America but several editors who with my full approval published
articles showing this belief.

I am obliged to Reventlow for what he says of me. I admire him as
a powerful writer for whose ability I have a deep respect and
perhaps if I were a Prussian Junker I would follow him as blindly
and confidently as do the army and navy officers, the nobles,
great and small, and the land-holding squires of Prussia, to whom
his writings are as seductive as the pipings of the Pied Piper to
the townsfolk of Hamlin.

Reventlow's charge of lying was made in the line of his duty as a
Prussian Junker, according to the best traditions of Prussian
government and diplomacy but it is so thoroughly disproved and
the authenticity of the Kaiser's telegram so universally admitted
in Germany, even in official circles there, that I feel only
sorrow for a Prussian nobleman and Junker and editor compelled by
the exigencies of his position to make so ridiculous a statement.

I think that the Germans just now are beginning to realise that I
always told them the truth and treated them fairly, a procedur