war
preparedness, etc. No one who has lived here for any length of
time can help coming to the conclusion that peaceful money-making
is the Americans' chief interest in life. Only when they think that
their rights have been seriously infringed do they lash themselves
into an hysterical war-fever. Why should war passion smoulder in the
hearts of a people whose boundaries are so secure that no enemy
has ever been seen inside them, nor in all human probability ever
will be?"

After the settlement of the _Sussex_ incident the Imperial Government
naturally hoped that Mr. Wilson would take steps to justify our
concessions with regard to the submarine question. Accordingly
I received the following general instructions:

"Berlin, 7th June, 1916.

"Order A. 56.

"_Confidential._

"More than a month has passed since our last Note to the United
States without President Wilson making up his mind to approach
the English Government on the question of the blockade. True I
do not expect that England would allow herself to be influenced
by the United States to abandon her infringement of international
law; nor do I imagine that a rejection of the American demands
by England would lead to a serious disturbance of the relations
between these two countries. The existing arbitration treaty, which
makes it possible in extreme cases to delay the settlement of the
points of contention indefinitely, rules this out. But the complete
passivity of Mr. Wilson, which could be understood so long as he
wished to avoid giving the impression that he was acting under
German coercion, but which cannot continue to be justified on these
grounds, is bound to re-act very unfavorably on public opinion
here and puts the Imperial Government in an extremely difficult
position.

"From the information which has reached you, Your Excellency will
already realize that our surrender to America on the submarine
question has met with approval in wide and influential circles
in Germany. If President Wilson persists in his passive attitude
towards England, it is to be feared that the section of German
public opinion whose attitude has so far been favorable to the
Government will ally themselves with the opponents of the Government
policy, and that the whole of public opinion in Germany will clamor
for the resumption of the submarine campaign on the old lines.
In that case, the Imperial Government would be all the less in
a position to resist this demand