rranged a long time before, that I might hand to
Mr. Wilson the reply of His Majesty the Emperor and King on the
question of Polish relief.

"Colonel House, with whom, as is known, I am in constant communication,
expected that on his landing Mr. Gerard would let fall some intentional
or unintentional diplomatic _lapsus linguoe_, and therefore went in
the early morning to the quarantine station in order to protect Gerard
from the reporters. Mr. Gerard received a very hearty reception,
which, however, had certainly been engineered for election purposes,
because it is to the interest of the Democratic Administration to
extol their ambassador and their foreign policy. Immediately after
the reception Gerard breakfasted with House, and there everything
was denied that had been actually said or implied.

"As I have known Mr. and Mrs. Gerard for many years I had a longish
conversation with them on the day after their arrival. The quintessence
of the ambassador's remarks was that he was completely neutral,
but that Berlin expected more than that.

"Now everything has calmed down again here, and nothing is talked
about except the election, which will be decided in three weeks'
time. As I have several times had the honor to report, the result
is most uncertain. While four months ago a Republican victory seemed
certain, to-day Wilson's success is very possible. This is explained
by the fact that Mr. Hughes has made no permanent impression as a
speaker, whereas Roosevelt blew the war trumpet in his usual bombastic
fashion. If Hughes should be defeated he can thank Roosevelt. The
average American is, and remains a pacifist '_Er segnet Friede
und Friedenszeiten_,' and can only be drawn into war by passionate
popular excitement."

With the facts contained in the above report the following telegram
is also concerned, which I despatched after the visit to the President
mentioned above:

TELEGRAM IN CIPHER

"Washington, 11th October 1916.

"Wilson gave particular force to his remarks by pointing out that
the leaders of the opposition Roosevelt, Lodge and Co., desired
war with Germany, which he was quite unable to understand. His
only desire was to remain neutral, and to help to bring the war
to an end as a decision by force of arms seemed to him out of the
question. He thought that neither of the belligerent parties would
be able to gain a decisive victory. Therefore it was better to
make peace to-day than to-morrow. But a