"'Who is going to be your next President--Wilson or Hughes?' he asked, and then, without waiting for an answer, continued:
"'If it is Hughes he can be no worse than Wilson. The worst he can do is to declare war on Germany and certainly that would be preferable to the present American neutrality.
"'If this should happen every one in our navy would shout and throw up his hat, for it would mean unlimited sea war against England. Our present navy is held in a net of notes.
"'What do you think the United States could do? You could not raise an army to help the Allies. You could confiscate our ships in American ports, but if you tried to use them to carry supplies and munitions to the Allies we would sink them.
"'Carrying on an unlimited submarine war, we could sink 600,000 tons of shipping monthly, destroy the entire merchant fleets of the leading powers, paralyse England and win the war. Then we would start all over, build merchantmen faster than any nation, and regain our position as a leading commercial power.'
"Friends of the Chancellor still hope that President Wilson will take a strong stand against England, thereby greatly strengthening Bethmann-Hollweg's position. At present the campaign against the Chancellor is closely connected with internal policies of the Conservatives and the big land owners. The latter are fighting Bethmann-Hollweg because he promised the people, on behalf of the Kaiser, the enactment of franchise reforms after the war."
enting on this despatch, the New York World said:
"Not long ago it was the fashion among the opponents of the Administration to jeer loudly at the impotent writing of notes. And even among the supporters of the Administration there grew an uneasy feeling that we had had notes ad nauseam.
"Yet these plodding and undramatic notes arouse in Germany a feeling very different from one of ridicule. The resentful respect for our notes is there admirably summed up by a member of the Reichstag who to the correspondent of the United Press exclaimed bitterly: 'Our present navy is held in a net of notes.'
"Nets may not be so spectacular as knuckle-dusters, but they are slightly more civilised and generally more efficient."