n under the strong pressure of public opinion. In
Versailles the Entente statesmen may well have forced a decision
by displaying a stronger will and a wider knowledge of European
affairs. Mr. Wilson was at Versailles in the position of the giant
Antaeus, who drew his strength from his native soil. Once away from
American ground Hercules (Clemenceau) was able to crush him.

At the time I am now describing the circumstances were quite different,
because at that time Mr. Wilson had a reliable support for his
policy in American public opinion. In Germany, at the very beginning
of the war, great resentment was felt against Mr. Wilson for the
cold negative in his reply to the Emperor's telegram in which Mr.
Wilson was asked to condemn the atrocities perpetrated by the Belgian
population and _francs-tireurs_. It was not, however, noticed in
Germany that the President at the same time likewise refused to
receive a Belgian deputation which came to America to beg for his
help.

During my conversation with the President already mentioned, he
made a statement on the lines of his proclamation of neutrality
of which I have already given the substance. My reply that the
American neutrality seemed to us to be tinged with sympathy for
our enemies Mr. Wilson contradicted emphatically. He thought that
this appearance was the result of England's naval power, which
he could do nothing to alter. In this connection the President
made the following remark, which struck me very forcibly at the
time:

"The United States must remain neutral, because otherwise the fact
that her population is drawn from so many European countries would
give rise to serious domestic difficulties."

My remark about the benevolence of the United States' neutrality
towards our enemies was at the time chiefly prompted by the differences
that had arisen with regard to the wireless stations.

The fact that this question arose gives yet another proof of how
little we were prepared for war. By German enterprise two wireless
stations had been erected on the east coast of the United States
as a means of direct communication with Europe, one at Sayville
(Long Island), the other at Tuckerton (New Jersey). Both were partly
financed by American and French capital. As at the beginning of the
war the cable fell entirely into English hands and was destroyed by
them, we had no telegraphic communication with home at our disposal.
We had to fall back exclusively on the wireles