Of course there might be a flocking to Palestine of Jews from Russia and the adjoining countries where they are not happy, but I think the thing is chiefly a sentiment and nothing else.  Morgenthau[68] is dead right.  I agree with him in toto.  I do not think anybody in the United States need be the least concerned about the Zionist movement because there isn’t a single Jew in our country such a fool as to go to Palestine when he can stay in the United States.  The whole thing is a sentimental, religious, more or less unnatural and fantastic idea and I don’t think will ever trouble so practical a people as we and our Jews are.

The following memorandum is dated February 10, 1918: 

General Bliss[69] has made a profound and the best possible impression here by his wisdom and his tact.  The British have a deep respect for him and for his opinions, and in inspiring and keeping high confidence in us he is worth an army in himself.  I have seen much of him and found out a good deal about his methods.  He is simplicity and directness itself.  Although he is as active and energetic as a boy, he spends some time by himself to think things out and even to say them to himself to see how his conclusions strike the ear as well as the mind.  He has been staying here at the house of one of our resident officers.  At times he goes to his room and sits long by the fire and argues his point—­out loud—­oblivious to everything else.  More than once when he was so engaged one of his officers has knocked at the door and gone in and laid telegrams on the table beside him and gone out without his having known of the officer’s entrance.  Then he comes out and tries his conclusion on someone who enjoys his confidence.  And then he stands by it and when the time comes delivers it slowly and with precision; and there he is; and those who hear him see that he has thought the matter out on all sides and finally.

Our various establishments in London have now become big—­the Embassy proper, the Naval and Army Headquarters, the Red Cross, the War Trade Board’s representatives, and now (forthwith) the Shipping Board, besides Mr. Crosby of the Treasury.  The volume of work is enormous and it goes smoothly, except for the somewhat halting Army Headquarters, the high personnel of which is now undergoing a change; and that will now be all right.  I regularly make the rounds of all the Government Departments with which we deal to learn if they find our men and methods effective, and the rounds of all our centres of activity to find whether there be any friction with the British The whole machine moves very well.  For neither side hesitates to come to me whenever they strike even small snags.  All our people are at work on serious tasks and (so far as I know) there are now none of those despicable creatures here who used during our neutrality days to come from the United States on peace errands and what-not to spy on the Embassy and me (their inquiries and