n the repeated
German professions of a desire for peace. In consequence nobody
takes them seriously until there is at least a tentative proposal
of terms. When that is made, the responsible Ministers of other
belligerent Governments will be forced to meet the issue. Public
opinion in Great Britain and France, no less than in Germany and
Austria-Hungary, will have a chance to make itself heard. When
peace comes it cannot be merely the peace of diplomats and of
Governments. It must be a peace in which popular sentiment has
the final word, and popular sentiment has no means of expression
until there is something tangible to discuss.'

"The general impression left by the utterances of the American
Press on the subject of peace is that on the one hand--apart from
a small number of influential papers--it is anxious for peace,
from which anxiety it is obvious that it intends to pass over the
extravagant war aims so often heard from the Entente statesmen;
but that on the other hand it cannot as yet find any practicable
way of bringing about an early conclusion of peace, and also that
it cannot see any advance in this direction in the last statements
of Your Excellency, which only a few papers have discussed to any
extent.

"The change in the direction of the Foreign Office has been discussed
at comparative length in the leading articles of the important
newspapers, which, as a rule, deal with European Ministerial changes
only in their news columns--less with regard to the personality of
the retiring Minister, who was not very well known here, than that
of the new Secretary of State. The only paper which devoted a few
friendly words to Herr von Jagow was the _New York Times_, which
described him, in connection with his conferences with Baron Beyens
and Sir Edward Goschen at the outbreak of war, as a 'Gentleman in
War and Peace,' and also recognized his sympathetic attitude during
the negotiations on the submarine war controversy. Herr Zimmermann's
appointment as Secretary of State, on the other hand, was greeted by
many papers, and indeed by the Press in general--only a few papers
were made somewhat uneasy by the news received lately by telegram,
of his attitude towards the question of armed merchantmen--with
great applause. The tone of these comments must have been set by
the flattering and sympathetic utterances of Ambassador Gerard
and the journalist Swope, on the subject of the new Secretary of
State, and a longer articl