The banks are sending circulars to all safe-deposit box holders, trying to get them to give up their gold.
An American clergyman has just told me the German church body has refused to receive an American Church deputation and has written a very bitter letter.
An official has told me that no new Military Attaché will be sent to America. The naval people have not yet decided.
I am very glad to hear Colonel House is coming over. There are many things I want to tell the President but which I do not dare to commit to paper.
A newspaperman supposed to be of the New York —— had an interview with Zimmermann the other day, and Zimmermann sent some messages by him to the President. I do not know what the messages are. We all suffer much from amateur diplomats.
Anthony Czarnecki, a very intelligent Chicagoan, an American of Polish descent, is here representing Victor Lawson and the Chicago Daily News. He informs me that the Spy Nest is contemplating an attack on the Administration because of the taking away of Archibald's and others' passports.
My impression is that the Austrians, owing to pressure from here, will eventually give in on the Ancona business. I think the present a good time to force the settlement of the Lusitania question.
Note. I do not suppose that any Ambassador ever suffered as much from amateur "super Ambassadors" as I did.
The German Foreign Office, trying to be modern and up-to-date at times, paid more attention to the tales of pro-German American correspondents than they did to the utterances of President Wilson.
Of course, the Germans succeeded in taking many of those correspondents in their camp. In the Hotel —— in Berlin an agent of the German Government who possessed American citizenship was always ready to arrange trips to the front or to make an advance of money to an American correspondent who would promise to be "good."