would not encourage the
matter to the extent of using the wireless towers at Sayville and
Tuckerton as means of transmitting the news.

How zealously the Foreign Office censor guards what appears in the German
newspapers was shown about two weeks before diplomatic relations were
broken. When the announcement was wirelessed to the United States that
Germany had adopted the von Tirpitz blockade policy the United Press sent
me a number of daily bulletins telling what the American Press,
Congressmen and the Government were thinking and saying about the new
order. The first day these despatches reached me I sent them to several
of the leading newspapers only to be notified in less than an hour
afterward by the Foreign Office that I was to send no information to the
German newspapers without first sending it to the Foreign Office. Two
days after the blockade order was published I received a telegram from
Mr. Howard saying that diplomatic relations would be broken, and giving
me a summary of the press comment. I took this despatch to the Foreign
Office and asked permission to send it to the newspapers. It was
refused. Throughout this crisis which lasted until the 10th of February
the Foreign Office would not permit a single despatch coming direct from
America to be printed in the German newspapers. The Foreign Office
preferred to have the newspapers publish what came by way of England and
France so that the Government could always explain that only English and
French news could reach Germany because the United States was not
interested in seeing that Germany obtained first hand information.

While Germany was arguing that the United States was responsible for her
desperate situation, economically, and while President Wilson was being
blamed for not breaking the Allied blockade, the German Foreign Office
was doing everything within its power to prevent German goods from being
shipped to the United States. When, through the efforts of Ambassador
Gerard, numerous attempts were made to get German goods, including
medicines and dye-stuffs, to the United States, the German Government
replied that these could not leave the country unless an equal amount of
goods were sent to Germany. Then, when the State Department arranged for
an equal amount of American goods to be shipped in exchange the German
Foreign Office said all these goods would have to be shipped to and from
German ports. When the State Department listened to thi