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the highest regard, and in consequence the German Reich had withdrawn its Ambassador. Such a 
 
situation was in detriment to the best interests of the two peoples. The German Government 
 
believed expanded trade relations between our two countries were highly desirable. Such were 
 
now impossible under present conditions. The German Government had no feature in 
 
its foreign policy, which conflicted with the interests of the United States; no ambitions which in 
 
any sense impinged upon the Western Hemisphere; and insofar as internal matters were 
 
concerned, all representatives of the German Government had received the most stringent orders 
 
never to interfere, directly or indirectly, in the domestic policies of the United States, nor in those 
 
of any other American Republic. Since all of these things were so, the Minister concluded,
 
he could see no valid ground whatever for the completely unsatisfactory state of relations between 
 
the United States and Germany. He could only assume that lying propaganda had had a 
 
preponderant influence.
 
          At this point I determined it was wiser for me to refrain from making the reply I desired to 
 
make until the end of the Minister's discourse. He was so obviously aggressive, so evidently 
 
laboring under a violent mental and emotional strain, that it seemed to me probable that if I 
 
replied at this juncture with what I intended to say, violent polemics was presumably ensue, with 
 
the possibility that things would be said that would not only make my interview with him entirely 
 
unfruitful, but which might also Jeopardize the interview I was scheduled to have with Hitler on 
 
the following morning.
 
          The Minister then continued. He passed to a narration of Germany's participation in 
 
European history, as he saw it, from