763.72/2356½
The Ambassador in Germany (Gerard) to the Secretary of State
[Received January 17.]
Dear Mr. Secretary: We are getting vague and conflicting reports in the newspapers here about the sinking of the Persia. There seems to be no end to this business. Perhaps it is best to have the inevitable come now. The hate of America has so grown under careful governmental fostering that I am quite sure that we will be the first attacked after the war. So that if it is to come, it had better come now when with a certain fleet we would start with command of the seas, making it impossible for agitators, dynamiters, and spies to be sent to Mexico and South America and into the U. S. A. through Canada and Mexico. From the highest to the lowest I get intimations that at the first chance America will be attacked.
Nothing new has occurred since my last letter. There is still a spirit of confidence in ultimate success, amply justified, it would seem, by the military situation.
A lot of dyestuff mysteriously left Germany, in spite of the embargo, lately, and got to Holland, billed to America, where it remains, awaiting a permit from the British. Perhaps the Germans are getting worried about the possible building-up of the industry at home. The profits of the German dye-stuff “trust” are certainly great enough to tempt the trust to do anything to keep the monopoly. Hardly a company pays less than 24 percent dividends.
[Page 676]New Year’s Day, on invitation of the Commandant of Ruhleben, where 4000-5000 English civilians are interned, the entire Embassy attended a Christmas pantomime given by the prisoners. Very well done; costumes and scenery all made in the camp. Yesterday the Commandant and the second and their wives all lunched here. All this helps on prison questions.
The Kaiser still laid up with a boil on his neck.