In the meantime numerous conferences were held at Great Headquarters.  Financiers, business men and diplomats who wanted to keep peace with America sided with the Foreign Office.  Every anti-American influence in the Central Powers joined forces with the Navy.  The Lusitania note was printed and the public discussion which resulted was greater than that which followed the first declarations of war in August, 1914.  The people, who before had accepted everything their Government said, began to think for themselves.  One heard almost as much criticism as praise of the Lusitania incident.  For the first time the quarrel, which had been nourished between the Foreign Office and the Admiralty, became nation-wide and forces throughout Germany lined up with one side or the other.  But the Navy Department was the cleverer of the two.  The press bureau sent out inspired stories that the submarines were causing England a loss of a million dollars a week.  They said that every week the Admiralty was launching two U-boats.  It was stated that reliable reports to Admiral von Tirpitz proved the high toll taken by the submarines in two weeks had struck terror to the hearts of English ship-owners.  The newspapers printed under great headlines:  “Toll of Our Tireless U-Boats,” the names and tonnage of ships lost.  The press bureau pointed to the rise in food prices in Great Britain and France.  The public was made to feel a personal pride in submarine exploits.  And at the same time the Navy editorial writers brought up the old issue of American arms and ammunition to further embitter the people.

Thus the first note which President Wilson wrote in the Lusitania case not only brought the quarrel between the Navy and Foreign Office to a climax but it gave the German people the first opportunity they had had seriously to discuss questions of policy and right.

In the Rhine Valley, where the ammunition interests dominated every phase of life, the Navy found its staunchest supporters.  In educational circles, in shipping centres, such as Hamburg and Bremen, in the financial districts of Frankfort and Berlin, the Foreign Office received its support.  Press and Reichstag were divided.  Supporting the Foreign Office were the Lokal Anzeiger, the Berliner Tageblatt, the Cologne Gazette, the Frankforter Zeitung, the Hamburger Fremdemblatt, and the Vorwaerts.

The Navy had the support of Count Reventlow, Naval Critic of the Deutsche Tageszeitung, the Taeglische Rundscha, the Vossische Zeitung, the Morgen Post, the B.  Z. Am Mittag, the Muenchener Neueste Nachrichten, the Rheinische Westfaelische Zeitung, and the leading Catholic organ, the Koelnische Volks-Zeitung.

Government officials were also divided.  Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg led the party which demanded an agreement with the United States.  He was supported by von Jagow, Zimmermann, Dr. Karl Helfferich, Secretary of the Treasury; Dr. Solf, the Colonial Minister; Dr. Siegfried Heckscher, Vice Chairman of the Reichstag Committee on Foreign Relations; and Philip Scheidemann, leader of the majority of the Socialists in the Reichstag.