very one in our navy would shout and throw up
his hat, for it would mean unlimited sea war against England. Our
present navy is held in a net of notes.

"'What do you think the United States could do? You could not raise an
army to help the Allies. You could confiscate our ships in American
ports, but if you tried to use them to carry supplies and munitions to
the Allies we would sink them.

"'Carrying on an unlimited submarine war, we could sink 600,000 tons of
shipping monthly, destroy the entire merchant fleets of the leading
powers, paralyse England and win the war. Then we would start all
over, build merchantmen faster than any nation, and regain our position
as a leading commercial power.'

"Friends of the Chancellor still hope that President Wilson will take a
strong stand against England, thereby greatly strengthening
Bethmann-Hollweg's position. At present the campaign against the
Chancellor is closely connected with internal policies of the
Conservatives and the big land owners. The latter are fighting
Bethmann-Hollweg because he promised the people, on behalf of the
Kaiser, the enactment of franchise reforms after the war."

Commenting on this despatch, the New York _World_ said:

"Not long ago it was the fashion among the opponents of the
Administration to jeer loudly at the impotent writing of notes. And
even among the supporters of the Administration there grew an uneasy
feeling that we had had notes _ad nauseam_.

"Yet these plodding and undramatic notes arouse in Germany a feeling
very different from one of ridicule. The resentful respect for our
notes is there admirably summed up by a member of the Reichstag who to
the correspondent of the United Press exclaimed bitterly: 'Our present
navy is held in a net of notes.'

"Nets may not be so spectacular as knuckle-dusters, but they are
slightly more civilised and generally more efficient."

The National Liberal Reichstag member who was quoted was Dr. Gustav
Stressemann. Stressemann is one of the worst reactionaries in Germany
but he likes to pose as a progressive. He was one of the first men to
suggest that the Reichstag form a committee on foreign relations to
consult with and have equal power of decision with the Foreign Office.

For a great many months the Socialist deputies of the Prussian Diet
have been demanding election reforms. Their demands were so insistent
that over a year ago the Chancellor, when he read the Kaiser's a