airs, whose opinion on this point was identical with mine. Up
to January 31st, 1917, however, I could never ascertain which of
these two views was the accepted one in Berlin, although, of course,
I always hoped that the party of common sense would eventually
prevail, nor was I able to discover what degree of success, if
any, Meyer Gerhardt, who had been sent to represent my views to
the authorities in Berlin, or Dr. Dernburg, who was working for the
same end, had managed to achieve. As will be seen from my account
of the subsequent course of events, my information on this point
was very insufficient, and I was not even made acquainted with the
views of the Berlin Government, on the conduct of the submarine
campaign, or on the subsequent peace proposals put forward by the
President. I was never informed beforehand as to the real intentions
of Berlin, and I cannot understand, even to-day, why I was not
told, until after the _Arabic_ incident, that the German submarine
commanders had been instructed immediately after the torpedoing
of the _Lusitania_ not to attack liners. A knowledge of this fact
at the time would have assisted me greatly in my dealings with
Washington. I do not intend to assert that in all this there was
any deliberate neglect on the part of the Berlin Government but
neither, on, the other hand, can I credit the commonly accepted
explanation that the technical difficulties of transmitting reports
were insuperable. It should have been possible to give me definite
information on these matters by any one of the various channels
of communication which were available between the Foreign Office
and the Embassy at Washington. No other explanation is possible,
except that which is to be found in the conflict of the two parties
in Germany. The head of the Foreign Office was well aware that my
policy in Washington was the same as his own in Berlin, but he
was frequently unable to send me definite and early information
because he, himself, could not tell whether his own views could
be accepted and acted upon.

At this time I sent the following report to Berlin:

"Cedarhurst, 28th July, 1915.

"I have on more than one occasion respectfully begged your Excellency
to be so good as to wait for my report before deciding whether the
last American _Lusitania_ Note is to be answered, and if a reply is
to be sent, in what sense it should be drafted. Neither the Government
nor public opinion considers such a reply abs