come unpopular with higher
Government authorities.

One day in Berlin, just before the recall of the former German military
and naval attaches in Washington, I asked Zimmermann whether Germany
sanctioned what these men had been doing. He replied that Germany
approved everything they had done "because they had done nothing more
than try to keep America out of the war; to prevent American goods
reaching the Allies and to persuade Germans and those of German descent
not to work in ammunition factories." The same week I overheard in a
Berlin cafe two reserve naval officers discuss plans for destroying
Allied ships sailing from American ports. One of these men was an
escaped officer of an interned liner at Newport News. He had escaped
to Germany by way of Italy. That afternoon when I saw Ambassador
Gerard I told him of the conversation of these two men, and also what
Zimmermann had said. The Ambassador had just received instructions
from Washington about Boy-Ed and von Papen.

Gerard was furious.

"Go tell Zimmermann," he said, "for God's sake to leave America alone.
If he keeps this up he'll drag us into the war. The United States
won't stand this sort of thing indefinitely."

That evening I went back to the Foreign Office and saw Zimmermann for a
few minutes. I asked him why it was that Germany, which was at peace
with the United States, was doing everything within her power to make
war.

"Why, Germany is not doing anything to make you go to war," he replied.
"Your President seems to want war. Germany is not responsible for what
the German-Americans are doing. They are your citizens, not ours.
Germany must not be held responsible for what those people do."

Had it not been for the fact that the American Government was fully
advised about Zimmermann's intrigues in the United States this remark
might be accepted on its face. The United States knew that Germany was
having direct negotiations with German-Americans in the United States.
Men came to Germany with letters of introduction from leading
German-Americans here, with the expressed purpose of trying to get
Germany to stop its propaganda here. What they did do was to assure
Germany that the German-Americans would never permit the United States
to be drawn into the war. Because of their high recommendations from
Germans here some of them had audiences with the Kaiser.

Germany had been supporting financially some Americans, as the State
Department has