e by Gilbert Hirsch published by the
_New York Evening Post_ and other papers under the heading 'Our
Friend Zimmermann.' The note struck by this article and by the
German Press comments transmitted and printed everywhere over here,
that Herr Zimmermann is a particularly warm friend of the United
States was joyfully echoed by the whole American Press. Also the
fact was everywhere emphasized that in Herr Zimmermann the important
post of chief of the Foreign Office hitherto reserved for 'Prussian
Junkerdom,' had been given to a member not of the diplomatic, but
of the humbler consular service, and indeed, to a bourgeois. Here
and there speculation was indulged in as to whether this appointment
might not be interpreted as the first step towards a 'Liberal regime,'
in which a not unimportant section of the American Press still sees
the future salvation of Germany and of the world.

"The announcement of autonomy for Poland is, to say the least of
it, received with scepticism by the American Press which is
comparatively well informed on the Polish question. The words of
the virtuoso Paderewski, who is working here in the interests of the
Polish sufferers through the war: 'This means only more suffering
for my people; it means that another army will be raised, and that
there will be more killing and more devastating,' were reproduced
by many newspapers and regarded as an authoritative statement of
what might be expected from the German-Austrian proclamations.
Many papers declared it to be simply a move to raise more recruits.
Others sarcastically pointed out that the proclamation left the
most vital questions, such as the boundaries of the new State and
its form of government, to be settled later. Only a few of the
leading newspapers, among them the _New York Evening Post_ and
the Philadelphia _North American_, allowed the Allied Governments
a certain modicum of recognition, for, as they pointed out, in no
case could the heavy hand of Russia, which had so long oppressed
the country, be forgotten. The Polish Press here was at first very
reserved. Their point of view is represented by the following leading
article of the weekly paper _Free Poland_, founded since the war
and published by the Polish National Council of America: 'What the
Poles desire is an independent Poland. The Powers have acknowledged
Poland's right to live, but either with a limitation of independence
or diminution of territory. The Russians would fain lop off