or at Washington, Dr. Dumba, to Baron Burian, the
Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister. In this letter Dr. Dumba took "this
rare and safe opportunity" of "warmly recommending" to the Austrian
Foreign Office certain proposals made by the editor of a
Hungarian-American organ, the "Szabadsag," for effecting strikes in
plants of the Bethlehem Steel Company and others in the Middle West
engaged in making munitions for the Allies.

The United States Government took a serious view of the letter
recommending the plan for instigating strikes in American factories.
Dr. Dumba, thrown on his defense, explained to the State Department
that the incriminating proposals recommended in the document did not
originate from him personally, but were the fruit of orders received
from Vienna. This explanation was not easily acceptable. The
phraseology of Dr. Dumba far from conveyed the impression that he was
submitting a report on an irregular proposal inspired by instructions
of the Austrian Government. Such a defense, however, if accepted, only
made the matter more serious. Instead of the American Government
having to take cognizance of an offensive act by an ambassador, the
Government which employed him would rather have to be called to
account. Another explanation by Dr. Dumba justified his letter to
Vienna on the ground that the strike proposal urged merely represented
a plan for warning all Austrians and Hungarians, employed in the
munition factories, of the penalties they would have to pay if they
ever returned to their home country, after aiding in producing weapons
and missiles of destruction to be used against the Teutonic forces.
This defense also lacked convincing force, as the letter indicated
that the aim was so to cripple the munition factories that their
output would be curtailed or stopped altogether--an object that could
only be achieved by a general strike of all workers.

The Administration did not take long to make up its mind that the time
for disciplining foreign diplomats who exceeded the duties of their
office had come. On September 8, 1915, Austria-Hungary was notified
that Dr. Konstantin Theodor Dumba was no longer acceptable as that
country's envoy in Washington. The American note dispatched to
Ambassador Penfield at Vienna for transmission to the Austrian Foreign
Minister was blunt and direct. After informing Baron Burian that Dr.
Dumba had admitted improper conduct in proposing to his Government
plans to instigate