763.72119/88½
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Italy (Page)
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: I received your letter of the 30th ultimo47 and appreciate very much your congratulations upon my appointment as Secretary.
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I hope you will continue to write me personally and confidentially in this way, as it is just the sort of information we require here to interpret the policies of the Italian Government and to comprehend the actual political situation in Italy.
We are here in a peculiar situation in our relations to Germany. The American people, I believe, do not desire war with Germany; in fact, there is no war spirit in the country. On the other hand they have been most desirous that the Government should take a firm stand in regard to the submarine warfare conducted by the Imperial Navy. They do not seem to appreciate what a firm stand means and to what it may lead. Of course, these two attitudes of the public mind are inconsistent, indeed they are almost paradoxical. It was with full recognition of the mental attitude of the American people that the [Page 723] recent note to Germany was drafted. I hope and believe that war may be avoided because of the change which has taken place in the German method of submarine attack. If, however, there should be another passenger ship sunk with Americans on board, a sentiment in this country would result which would be very difficult to check.
There is another agency operating against a radical and rigid attitude toward Germany, and that is the general public feeling against Great Britain on account of her so called blockade and the interruption of trade between neutral countries. This offsets to an extent the feeling against Germany or, at least, keeps the balance of sentiment more or less equal. It is not equal for two reasons: one is, the preponderance of American sympathy is with the Allies, and, in the second place, the illegal acts of Germany cause loss of life while the illegal acts of Great Britain cause loss of property. This, briefly, is the situation here and whatever I should say further would be purely speculative.
Thanking you for your letter [etc.]
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