Before this time much indignation had been caused in Germany
by the fact that the _Lusitania_ on her eastward voyage
from New York early in February, 1915, had raised the American
flag when nearing British waters.
Shortly after this incident had become known, I was at the
Wintergarten, a large concert hall in Berlin, with Grant Smith,
First Secretary of the Embassy at Vienna and other members of
my staff. We naturally spoke English among ourselves, a fact
which aroused the ire of a German who had been drinking heavily
and who was seated in the next box. He immediately began to call
out that some one was speaking English and when told by one of
the attendants that it was the American Ambassador, he immediately
cried in a loud voice that Americans were even worse than English
and that the _Lusitania_ had been flying the American flag as
protection in British waters.
The audience, however, took sides against him and told him to
shut up and as I left the house at the close of the performance,
some Germans spoke to me and apologised for his conduct.
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