eign Office, the army and navy as well as
influential Reichstag members that the real power behind the government
over here was not the press and public opinion but the nine million
Americans who were directly or indirectly related to Germany. During
this time the Government felt so sure that it could rely upon the
so-called German-Americans that the Government considered them as a
German asset whenever there was a submarine crisis.

When Henry Morgenthau, former American Ambassador to Turkey, passed
through Berlin, en route to the United States, he conferred with
Zimmermann, who was then Under Secretary of State. During the course
of one of their conversations Zimmermann said the United States would
never go to war with Germany, "because the German-Americans would
revolt." That was one of Zimmermann's hobbies. Zimmermann told other
American officials and foreign correspondents that President Wilson
would not be able to bring the United States to the brink of war,
because the "German-Americans were too powerful."

But Zimmermann was not making these statements upon his own authority.
He was being kept minutely advised about conditions here through the
German spy system and by German-American envoys, who came to Berlin to
report on progress the German-Americans were making here in politics
and in Congress.

Zimmermann was so "dead sure" he was right in expecting a large portion
of Americans to be disloyal that one time during a conversation with
Ambassador Gerard he said that he believed Wilson was only bluffing in
his submarine notes. When Zimmermann was Under Secretary of State I
used to see him very often. His conversation would contain questions
like these:

"Well, how is your English President? Why doesn't your President do
something against England?"

Zimmermann was always in close touch with the work of Captains von
Papen and Boy-Ed when they were in this country. He was one of the
chief supports of the little group of intriguers in Berlin who directed
German propaganda here. Zimmermann was the man who kept Baron Mumm von
Schwarzenstein, former Ambassador to Tokyo, in the Foreign Office in
Berlin as chief of foreign propaganda and intrigue in America and
China. Mumm had been here as Minister Extra-ordinary several years ago
and knew how Germany's methods could be used to the best purpose,
namely, to divide American sentiment. Then, when Zimmermann succeeded
Jagow he ousted Mumm because Mumm had be