Von Bethmann-Hollweg said that one of the principal reasons why
Germany had determined upon a resumption of ruthless submarine
warfare was because of this speech of the President to the American
Senate. Of course, the trouble with this feeling and the criticism
of the President's speech made by the Chancellor is that the
orders for the resumption of ruthless submarine warfare had been
given long before the news of the speech came to Germany.
I had cabled the information collected by Commander Gherardi
as to the orders given to submarines long before the date of
the President's speech, and it happened that on the night after
I had received the German note announcing this resumption I was
taking a walk after dinner about the snow-covered streets of
Berlin. In the course of this walk I met a young German woman of
my acquaintance who was on intimate terms with the Crown Princess.
She was on her way on foot from the opera house, where she had
been with the Crown Princess, to the underground station, for
by this time, of course, taxis had become an unknown luxury in
Berlin, and I joined her.
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