. The rooms
were decorated with German and American flags, the band played the
"Wacht am Rhein," and many speeches were made on the good relations
between the two countries.

Again on her second visit, which took place in October in New London
(Connecticut), the _Deutschland_ met with a very friendly reception,
even though the atmosphere was appreciably cooler. Feeling in the
New England state has always been particularly unfavorable to us.
But there, to, I passed a very pleasant day with Captain Koenig.

In contrast to the moral gain of the visit of the _Deutschland_
was the generally unfavorable impression created by the visit at
the same time of the U53. Quite unexpectedly I received the news
that a German submarine had arrived at Newport, the captain of
which had reported himself to the American commandant and had handed
him a letter addressed to me. The letter attracted a good deal of
attention in the Press, but it actually contained nothing further
than the introduction of the captain. The episode of the U53 was,
from a political point of view, most undesirable and of no military
value. When, moreover, a few days later the news arrived that the
U53 had sunk several ships off the American coast--always, it is
true, according to international law--the incident assumed a fairly
serious aspect. Meanwhile I travelled direct to Shadow Lawn, the
President's beautiful summer residence on the New Jersey coast,
to hand to Mr. Wilson a letter from the Emperor. The President
had appealed to the Heads of all the combatant States to urge them
to permit relief to starving Poland, as had been done for Belgium.
As was to be expected, the Entente rejected the proposal while the
Central Powers agreed to it. The Emperor's approval was contained
in the letter which I brought to Mr. Wilson.

The President took this opportunity to speak to me very seriously on
the cruise of the U53, and urged me to see to it that this incident
was not repeated. Otherwise he could not be responsible for public
feeling in the United States, which might again become very bitter.
The affair was very disagreeable to me personally, because I was
building hopes on Mr. Wilson's mediation and because I feared that
the cruise of the U53 would be interpreted as an attempt on our
part to put difficulties in the way of the President's re-election.
It might be assumed that his Republican opponents would say that
Germany could now do what she liked, as Mr. Wilson