with America that, speaking in strictest confidence,
they had been urging him to make trouble in America in
retaliation through incitement of the German population.
He had not permitted this, and didn't intend to permit
it, and, indeed, recognized the folly of interference in
a country so remote, but that I had evidence in what he
told me of the resentment of the people around him
against my country.
 
 
 I saw at once that this was going to be a conver-
sation in which I had one of two alternatives, either
to lose my temper and begin to shout, or quietly and
dryly to make brief replies and keep the affair on a
footing where I could deal with him again when his
temper had changed. I chose the latter course, and
in reply to what he said above I merely remarked
that such a policy was obviously shortsighted and I
was glad that the Fieldmarshal himself recognized it.
 
 
 I am not sending this as a memorandum of
conversation, but merely to give you an impression of
one of the foremost figures here with which I have
to deal, and to give you an impression of the depth
of feeling which has been caused by this helium
incident, a feeling far out of proportion to the