File No. 763.72/2760
The Ambassador in Austria-Hungary ( Penfield ) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 19.]
Sir: For some time I have intended advising you of the extreme unfriendliness of the Austrian press to the United States, an attitude that began shortly after the sinking of the Lusitania a year since and by degrees grew to outrageous proportions.
Since the war began the press of Austria-Hungary has been officially censored, and strictly so, as shown from time to time when great dailies appear with paragraphs and even whole columns deleted.
This gives, technically at least, the Government’s approval to everything that is published.
Not for a year has any newspaper said anything editorially favorable to America, and such news dispatches as have been given might have been selected by an agent of the Central powers. Statements [Page 274] of labor unrest and of criticism of our President by unknown college professors and caviling organizations and societies have been made much of. Statistics showing America’s trade in war munitions have been given commanding positions. And naturally the incident of Doctor Dumba, and the long series of annoyances from Boy-Ed and Von Papen were given a treatment most unfavorable to Washington.
In recent months there have been frequent articles from the pen of the dismissed consul, St. John Gaffney, printed with the show of importance attached to the utterances of a person of prominence and worth.
The Vienna Freie Presse a few weeks since began the publication of a series of articles written in Berlin by one Aubrey Stanhope, described in bold letters as “an American journalist.” One of these articles characterized the Secretary of State as a lawyer of mediocre abilities and almost unknown in American public life. Another of the Stanhope diatribes assailed President Wilson as a weak doctrinaire of Scotch descent, having little practical experience in public affairs, whose chief concern was to secure reelection.
I naturally resented these calumnies and did all that I dared to prevent a repetition of such falsehoods. The editor and owner of the Freie Presse is an acquaintance of mine, who professes friendship. On the days that the obnoxious articles appeared he made a point of sending a subeditor to explain to me that he regretted that the Stanhope effusions had “slipped in” to his paper, promising to be more careful in future.
Finally, by subterranean means, I was advised of a third article already in type in which Stanhope was seriously stating that President Wilson wanted war with Germany and was really working to that end, because if the United States entered the great conflict there could be no election this year and the President would automatically secure a second term of office. Determined that this article should not appear, I took steps that secured its suppression. Incidentally I let the editor know that Stanhope was not an American at all, but an Irishman who for many years was an employee of James Gordon Bennett both in America and in Paris, that he was caught by the war in Berlin, and rather than undergo internment had turned traitor to his country and become a writer of articles abusive of Great Britain and America that were being printed in English in a paper subsidized by the German Government and published in Berlin.
This terminated the annoyance of a renegade of the Gaffney and Casement type, and Stanhope ceased to be a contributor to the Freie Presse.
When the Sussex incident between Washington and Berlin became acute, there was much editorial vituperation of the United States in the press of this Monarchy. Daily was it said that our Government was in no sense neutral, or fair to the Teutonic peoples. One editorial said outright that Wilson and Lansing were but enacting their parts as Washington attorneys of the Allies, and serving their employers well.
The unfriendliness of a people fed up on this pabulum was but natural, and for weeks it seemed the fixed idea of Austrians that [Page 275] President Wilson was secretly in the employ of Great Britain and that America’s neutrality was but a mask. Almost daily secretaries and employees of the Embassy would come to me with statements that they were being regarded by the Viennese almost as spies and that many people had assured them that notwithstanding our pretended neutrality we were in reality three-quarters enemies. I am glad to say that in my own goings and comings I heard no such expressions. Vienna people probably knew it would not be safe to utter such opinions in my hearing.
With the amelioration of the Sussex incident following the exchange of notes, I deemed the time opportune to see the Minister for Foreign Affairs upon the subject of the unjust attitude of the press that was thwarting our efforts to do all in our power to improve the relations between America and Austria-Hungary.
Baron Burian manfully agreed with my statement and assured me that although the Government could not wholly control the press, he would personally see to it that unfair criticism ended forthwith. He did not hesitate to say that his Monarchy wanted the friendship of our country, not only now but when the war is over.
An improvement in the tone of the press was quickly discernible, as was an improvement in the attitude of the people. All went well until last Monday morning when the weekly journal, Der Morgen, printed a half-page cartoon attacking President Wilson and the American people in the most outrageous manner. Copies of the offensive illustration are enclosed herewith.
Immediately I saw the journal, I applied for an appointment with Baron Burian “at his earliest convenience,” and at 5 o’clock of the same day was with him. The publication was so atrocious that in a very few minutes I had his promise to render “full justice and entire satisfaction” in a very short time. The Minister was at first inclined to dilate upon the abusive tone of the American press to his country. When I explained that in our Republic there could be no such thing as a censored press, and said that I was certain he would not plead justifiable retaliation, his condemnation of the illustration in question became vigorous. He remarked that he hoped his Emperor would never see it. The Minister was quite of opinion that the insult to America had the making of an international incident.
Twenty-four hours after making my protest I received the Minister’s apology and guarantee that in future there would be no attacks upon the President and the Government of the United States, accompanied by his expression of personal regret that an Austrian periodical could attack a friendly Government as had Der Morgen. A copy of Baron Burian’s letter with translation is enclosed.
Telegraphically I reported the incident with a digest of the apology to the Department on the 17th instant in my No. 1266.1
Since my visit to the Minister on the 15th instant I have noted not one line of criticism of our country in the press of Vienna, and I understand that there has been a shakeup in the censor’s office with several subordinates dismissed.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩