s
allowed us to enter. We were placed under the supervision of the
English cruiser _Devonshire_, and I cannot help admitting that the
English naval officers discharged the undignified and distasteful
duties imposed upon them with great courtesy. The Canadian officials,
on the other hand, behaved with the utmost disrespect and boorishness.
They appeared to be accustomed to dealing only with immigrants and
stowaways.

I do not know to this day, why, in spite of our Safe Conduct, we
were held up twelve days in the Bedford Basin, which, with its
encircling snow-clad hills, was completely shut off from the rest
of the world. The examination in itself could not adequately account
for this strange and uncustomary behavior, particularly towards an
Ambassador: for although the ship's coal was ultimately sifted in
the search for contraband goods, if any good-will had been shown,
the examination could have been finished in three to four days
at the outside. I suppose, however, that the delay was intended
to serve political ends. The English probably wanted to keep us
shut up in Halifax until the United States had entered into the
war. They were perfectly well aware of my views, and feared that
in Berlin I might after all succeed in effecting an understanding
with the American Government. As, however, developments in the
United States dragged on very slowly, and at first only an armed
neutrality was contemplated, the English were ultimately obliged
to allow us to continue our journey, because they could not very
well keep us confined for weeks.

Personally, I cannot complain of the treatment to which I was subjected
at Halifax, for I was the only one among all my fellow passengers
of German nationality who had not to submit to having my person
searched, and was only required to sign a declaration that I was
carrying no papers. Everybody else--even my wife--had to consent to
being searched, an operation which was performed in a humiliating
manner, and which led to many an unpleasant scene. Even little
Huberta Hatzfeldt, who was only three months old, was stripped
of her swaddling clothes. The Canadian authorities assessed the
"reasonable sum of money" allowed at ninety dollars a head, and
confiscated all moneys above that sum as contraband. In this way,
Countess Manfred Matuschka lost 25,000 dollars, which, in ignorance
of the regulations, she had brought with her. The sum was to be
deposited with a Canadian Bank, but has probab