“The spirit of animosity towards Americans which swept Germany a few weeks ago seems to have disappeared.  The 1,400 Americans in Berlin and those in the smaller cities of Germany have little cause to complain of discourteous treatment.  Americans just arriving in Berlin in particular comment upon the friendliness of their reception.  The Germans have been especially courteous, they declare, on learning of their nationality.  Feeling against the United States for permitting arms to be shipped to the Allies still exists, but I have not found this feeling extensive among the Germans.  Two American doctors studying in German clinics declare that the wounded soldiers always talk about ‘Amerikanische keugel’ (American bullets), but it is my observation that the persons most outspoken against the sale of ammunition to the Allies by American manufacturers are the American residents of Berlin.”

Two weeks later the situation had changed considerably.  On the 24th I telegraphed:  “Despite the bitter criticism of the United States by German newspapers for refusing to end the traffic in munitions, it is semi-officially explained that this does not represent the real views of the German Government.  The censor has been instructed to permit the newspapers to express themselves frankly on this subject and on Secretary Bryan’s reply to the von Bernstorff note, but it has been emphasised that their views reflect popular opinion and the editorial side of the matter and not the Government.

“The Lokal Anzeiger, following up its attack of yesterday, to-day says: 

“’The answer of the United States is no surprise to Germany and naturally it fails to convince Germany that a flourishing trade in munitions of war is in accord with strict neutrality.  The German argument was based upon the practice of international law, but the American reply was based upon the commercial advantages enjoyed by the ammunition shippers.’”

April 24th was von Tirpitz day.  It was the anniversary of the entrance of the Grand Admiral in the German Navy fifty years before, and the eighteenth anniversary of his debut in the cabinet, a record for a German Minister of Marine.  There was tremendous rejoicing throughout the country, and the Admiral, who spent his Prussian birthday at the Navy Department, was overwhelmed with congratulations.  Headed by the Kaiser, telegrams came from every official in Germany.  The press paid high tribute to his blockade, declaring that it was due to him alone that England was so terror-stricken by submarines.

I was not in Germany very long until I was impressed by the remarkable control the Government had on public opinion by censorship of the press.  People believe, without exception, everything they read in the newspapers.  And I soon discovered that the censor was so accustomed to dealing with German editors that he applied the same standards to the foreign correspondents.  A reporter could telegraph not what he observed and heard, but what the censors desired American readers to hear and know about Germany.