File No. 763.72119/900
The Minister in the Netherlands ( Garrett ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 17, 12.10 a.m.]
1496. For Harrison from Anderson:
At last conference here was German just arrived from Berlin. He admitted some alarm over recent Allied operations; said that their line could never be broken through. British had to occupy the actual [Page 250] strategic points they had fought for; said the German fighting manpower in the field had not been reduced; that recovered wounded and youth reaching fighting age each year exceeded annual losses. I had hard work to convince him that the American determination to fight to a finish was not waning. It has been widely spread in Germany that American majority had turned in favor of peace. He had the exaggerated story believed in Germany about soap-box orators voicing public opinion; that our peace societies were all working again for peace; that college professors were now urging peace. The Carnegie Endowment, if it is their policy, should give greatest publicity to the fact that they want no international peace until its enemies are [defeated?] or permanently converted. The American Peace Society should make similar declaration. These two institutions would be regarded in Germany as the most important leaders in peace movements. President Eliot should be induced to publish what, in America, we understand as his correct views which seem to be garbled and (widely?) circulated in that garbled form in Germany. Minister Garrett suggests and I fully agree that the censor should pass with care and intelligence letters from German-Americans to their friends in Germany describing the evidences they see of our enthusiasm, determination, and military activity, in so far as, of course, what they write of the latter is innocuous. The writing of such letters might be equally beneficial. The agency for short propaganda in Germany would be as effective as Bradstreet in our country, and will cooperate with me in the matter but must be kept strictly confidential and adhere in every statement to the absolute truth. My conferences with Austrian channels are [being?] delayed. I go to London to-day to return here in about ten days; address there care the Embassy.