LETTER TO MR. ALLEN W. DULLES FROM A. R. [ ]

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80R01731R000300050063-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 14
• Document Creation Date: December 14, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 29, 2003
• Sequence Number: 63
• Publication Date: February 20, 1959
• Content Type: LETTER

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ILLEGIB
i;", .d LuJ -I _,Z
STAT`''".` FED
February 20 1959.
Because of the family interest as well as its diplomatic g L F ''y
import, I am enclosing tear-sheets containing my exclusive
interview with Robert Lansing, Secretary of State under Mr.
Wilson during World War I, which the latter suppressed, for
reasons never learned. I found some missing sheets of the
original script, believed lost, not long ago. They contain
the changes and corrections he made, twice at his library in
the 18th Street home.
That 1916 summer was a hectic period, far more than it
is these days, with Germany having declared a sink-everything
policy, and the "spectre" of Mr. Hughes as the next White
House incumbent. I was in that campaign, interviewing at
presidential level, this having been my exclusive field, and
I alone having interviewed all, Theodore to Franklin Roose-
velt, both inclusive, and missing Truman by an editorial
fluke.
The interview, a veritable State paper, intended for the
Saturday Evening Post, in which I had landed another by Sec.
Knox in 1912 (I always a non-staff specialist after a most
unsatisfactory staff connection on the Washington Star, as
first international expert in American journalism. 1905-
1907) and another with Sec. Bryan. My last was with Sec.
Hull, but it never reached publication.
As dean of all Washington writers, trained in diplomacy
by two foremost ambassadors in my teens as special if unoff-
icial secretary, from just before the Boxer troubles of 1900,
my international vista has been second to none. It was I
who put the Department of State on the front page, in 1909,
as specialist for the then famous and authoritative New York
World. I coined the term Dollar Diplomacy, and thereby
transferred the seat of world news from Paris and London to
Washington. Mine, in 1913, was the first news observer
tour of record, being received, by highest accreditation,
at Downing Street and other like spots all the way to St.
Petersburg. Having interviewed Wilson in the campaign of
1912, together with President Taft and former President The-
odore Roosevelt (a beat I myself surpassed in 1920 with the
SEPost's Harding-Cox-Coolidge-FDR), I was the first in the
Europeam capitals who knew thethen newly inaugurated Wilson,
and could authoritatively describe him and his planned
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policies. A most interested auditor was Pius X, second Pope
to receive me in private audience, Leo XIII having bidden me
good-bye and Godspeed before I left as a lad of 11 my natal
Rome for the United States. Pius Xl:in 1924.
Dollar Diplomacy, which we have had under several aliases
despite its "being killed off" by several administrations, is
aWebster term but the dictionary misinterprets as did so
many politicians. Actually, it was based on the Taft credo
of peace, "dollars in lieu of bullets," not as a means of
infiltration--it was still the era of expansion by force--but
much as aid has been given of late years for local betterment.
Were I news writing again, which I have not been able to
do because lacking a suitable important medium (my.last was
Henry Ford's Dearborn Independent, in which I serialized my
explanation of fascism, I being in Rome when the black shirts
came that 1922, but recorded many other exclusives or firsts,
I:d emphasize our aid policy as Dollar Diplomacy.
It was I that in 1950 exposed the genesis of soviet so-
called diplomacy, in the venerable Catholic World. It was
the result of information I had obtained, the hint coming at
Downing Street when talking with Sir Edward (Grey), but the
subject matter did not seem more than academic, so no editor
felt like using it. Mine also was the first allusion to the
possibility of an American Pope, back in 1909, revived in
1950--just now recent news--and the fact that a Catholic can
and will be President. President Roosevelt himself said a
Jew too would be--and that statement was made around 1907.
Too bad my War Industries Board chief, the incomparable
Baruch, is 25 years too old-----
Actually, I was around the White House, mostly as a non-
reporting visitor, except on special occasions dealing with
the Presidents themselves, when mass or mob reporting as now-
adays hadn't become the farce it is, no matter how it looks
in print next day. President Cleveland himself showed me
around the then Executive Mansion, late 1896, and down to
DDE, for reasons he knows nothing about but stupid, my app-
erances at occasional press meetings were always ex cathedra.
For none of the'correspondents of my time could even dream
of duplicating my exclusives or status here or abroad.
Secretary Lansing, knowing of my confidential relations
with Secretaries Daniels and Baker, plus others, privileged
me with the enclosed 43-year-old talk. A later article we
prepared together, for his sole signature, one.of a "war"
series, went through in 1918.
Because I retained my Italian nationality until we went
to war in'1917, and a disagreement I had with Italian repre-
sentatives here and in Rome, and knowing all the intricacies
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of social as well as official protocol in those strict days
of such observance, I was personally credentialed by them to
their chiefs abroad. American reporters, aside from the two
or three routine department men who made no pretense to
cover more than handouts, were still provincial as were the
newspapers, with the exception of the Star, and this was an
experiment. But it was too parochial and stingy. When in
1906 several Latin American envoys wished me to visit their
countries, I having written about that area often, and I
wished to go along with the Root party, but in no way conn-
ected with it, the editors almost died when I asked for an
expense account of not much over $500. Today they spend
thousands for trivia.
But most important is the fact that in March, 1910, I
disclosed the basic war plans Japan made against the United
States, a global sensation. If Secretary Knox had had his
way, the chances were for a cases belli. He even accused my
also good friend James Bryce, British Ambassador, of repre-
senting a nation that tried to play both ways--as'long was
the case, and still maybe. Baron Komura denied the charge
in a cable that was printed facsimile on the front page, but
the Foreign Minister's was doubletalk.
Curiously, FDR, whom I had known in a special way for
31 years, and last-saw him just before he left for Yalta,
had known of this forecast, and it came up around 1923, after
he left his bedroom, when he told me point-blank that if he
were a Japanese and could not land on our coast he would
commit harakiri. Yet at the moment when my news was so
tragically confirmed after 31 years as Pearl Harbor, he
seemed as if his past ideas had evaporated. Moreover, it
was I who in 1913 turned his mind definitely towards aerial
warfare, so in that sense, journalistically, I am the god-
father of nuclear war strategy. I knew of the atomic secret
research from the start--the long well kept secret that spies
and traitors passed on to Moscow.
Hence, from Hay's open-door, and he was the first to be
disliked by Japan, as was TR later, my vista internationally
has been second to none.
Last year I had a minor feud with the Department of
State over the matter of my receiving an invitation from Mao
Tze-tung for an interview. In my Star days I wrote much
about China and I was quite close to Wu Ting fang, the still
celestially robed representative. He too wished me to go to
Peking for a look.
Because of past letters with Mr Dulles, in 1944 and
later, in which he recognized my unusual status, I thought
he might make an exception for me. Mr. Berding took over,
and gave me the reasons I could not accept, considering
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inapplicable to me or my case. Who else of the hundreds now,
and thousands of the come-and-gone Washington newspaper repre-
sentatives, could come within a thousand miles of my coverage?
Or standing here and abroad? So I was "downgraded" to the
job lot of scribed, most of whom just parrot one another, and
their analyses or dope offered ad nauseam. How any one man
can turn out endlessly a measured space of original material
is one of those idiocies that my profession seems to thrive
under. I went days without writing a word. When I wrote I
filled the space according to the impart of my news.
Did I forecast the Mexican revolution that led to the
Diaz flight? I did. I was given the description of what was
to come by the man who engineered it. That was in 1910. The
World, which had always used my material without change, used
but a few lines. And in 1913, traveling from Rome on the
Paris Express (which I took purposely, though changing at
Pisa for Berlin) I saw ex-Presidente Diaz, and from me he
learned what had happened and why--though I did not give him
the name of my informant. The latter was executed some years
later. In 1942 I asked my old friend Ambassador Daniels if he
could in any way find out some of the in-between details of
Juan Pedro Didapp, but it seems that the files had been ran-
sacked by the various interests who wanted no incriminating
records around.
Yet Ambassador de la Barra, who became provisional Pre-
sident, just as preditcted that too, had tried hard to learn
from me the identity of said Didapp, characterizing him as
a troublemaker. Curiously, the film VIVA ZAPATA! reveals
just those episodes.
I tried several times to start for an over-the-world
trip, to visit retired friends or their relatives or successors.
Just as now I understand the do Amaral of Brazil, who had been
secretary in the days of Nabuco in 1906 and later ambassador,
is reported as living in quiet age.
My premise was and remains that one of the first tenets
of diplomacy is to make an exception when an exception is due,
no matter what rule is detoured. I premised that with both
Secretary Dulles but my correspondence went to Mr. Berding,
and he rigidly held to his "mass" theory. It was my loss in
a way but the greater loss the Department's.
My tutor, as it were9 was Jules Cambon, acclaimed as the
world's foremost diplomat (though I later doubted this on the
record), and he the man behind Clemenceau at the 1919 Peace
Conference. I saw him that year in Paris, after the debacle,
and he gave me details of what really happened--and Wilson
never realizing that House and Lansing and others had urged
him not to go there as a "delegate."
The break between Wilson and Lansing actually began with
cf
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the suppression of the enclosed interview. It was but an in-
visible crack but it matured with the 1920 firing.
Another mistake was FDR's. When he mentioned that Italy
had stabbed France in the back in 1940, echoing Churchill,
equally ignorant on the point as I wrote the latter, this
country forgot how it had. shortchanged Rome at the Versailles
meeting. We played in the Lloyd George-Clemenceau hands;
Wilson the historian was totally and tragically ignorant of
the complicated and underground jealousies and ambitions.
So Mussolini could not trust Washington anew--not with Paris
and London as shadowing the White House.
There was Caporetto, occasion,,=,lly revived as an Italian
example of bad soldiering and the like. Yes? In fact, it
was due to our own stupidity here. Instead of sending such
equipment as was needed for mountain warfare, which Wash-
ington on-the-desk-spurred officers knew nothing of, West
Point or no West Point,.it had been diverted through intrigue
to the English and French forces. I had warned Italian
Ambassador Cellere of Italian ignorance in dealing with Wash-
ington, and Lonon too, but to no good. When Marconi came
here in 1920 or thereabouts to learn what had happened to a
billion or so Liberty Loan dollars granted to Italy, nobuddy
knew nuttin.'
I told Secretary Baker about the situation and he thought
of sending me to Italy as secret special representative--to
see what was what. That was the end of October. I was off-
ered a captaincy. I wanted a colonelship, for my diplomatic
knowledge and experience, and as a proof of my standing with
rank-conscious foreigners. It was agreed--a matter of just
days, perhaps hours, when the false armistice was announced,
and a week later the war was over. At the time I was personnel
officer under Mr. Baruch.
I was responsible for the recall of Ambassador Aoki of
Japan and perhaps of the no-return departure of Cellere, who
traveled with the Wilsons, and his still suspicious end. I
knew his mother--an eccentric woman who groomed her own
horses when she had fits of firing her servants. The Cellere
had a villino around the corner from us near Piazza dell'Indi-
pendenza, and on this square was the residence of Larz
Anderson, a secretary of the American Embassy, where my pet
cat got locked in the cellar and came home dying.
My long planned book of Washington of my time, with reve-
lations without which no Americana of the period can be
authentic or complete, has suffered vicissitudes, and the
second war complicated matters. So now and then I publish
some timely and relevant item that will be part of its back-
bone. I have no illusions about the situation, personal or
official, and as a nonvoter I have retained implicit object-
ivity. And as a Roman with a family name 2000 yearsold I
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have an atavistic tendency to be satirical though construct-
ive. I never reported anything critical without offering an
idea or plan or suggestion. Unfortunately, as the world
over, one of the general ills is the fixation that election or
appointment to high office carries with it sapience and exper-
ience automatically. What an idiocy!
I have a wonderful note from former President Hoover, as
a result of some comments about what he terms the "tragedy of
Wilson." Well, I published all but one of the facts in 1921,
the very week he stepped from the White House. The remaining
secret I may not be able to divuldge so long as one or two
individuals are alive. But it is the key to what happened to
Woodrow.
That too was a journalistic novelty. I went to see Mr.
Hoover at his Palo Alto residence in 1934, two years after he
left Washington. I wrote an article explaining the Hoover
truth--that he had nothing to do with the depression, which
Al Smith would have suffered had he been elected, and the said
depression a telegonic result that began either under Taft or
under Wilson, and postponed by the war. Not an editor wanted
to touch the story. Hoover was "mud." Use of his name would
alienate thousands of readers, they said. So it appeared in
the Catholic World in 1951, 17 years after, and then every-
body "discovered" the new Hoover! What a joke if not so
tragic.
I agree with Herbert Hoover, and Bernard M. Baruch, that
the advantage of growing old (of course in good health and
lively memory) is the store of remembrances, partcipation or
personal presence or knowledge on the spot. Yet many of
these men don't know all. None got around as I did. None
had met so many from so many places on such personally confi-
dential basis.
When President Roosevelt had me summoned in 1906 to
add to something I had published about China, he admitted
he himself, and the Department of State, did not-know what I
might know. It is the only instance of a President, and
then Secretary of State Philander C. Knox, that a journalist
was credited with knowing more than the government. And
Truman a month ago said that the President has access to
information no one else has! Well, his record proves other-
wise or faulty eisegesis.
I sent copies of the magazine to Mrs. Dulles, so she
may take one to the. Secretary for reading when he is up to
it. I believe this is due you if only as a "family" factor.
Sincerely yours,
To Mr. Allen W. Dulles. .-_In
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 AUGHTERS
of the
MERICAN
EVOLUTION
MAGAZINE
JANUARY 1959
PUBLISHED BY THE NATIONAL SOCIETY DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION
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Washington, D. C.
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CIA-RDP80R01731 R000300050063-9
e cordially invited to consult
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hiding, 6th Floor
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THIS JANUARY NUMBER
OF THE MAGAZINE is the
first to be issued in the size au-
thorized by the National Board
of Management on October 15.
We have been told that not only
is the format more modern but
that printing costs will be lower
than those for the former Maga-
zine. In a time when the costs of
almost everything have soared,
your D.A.R. Magazine is still
only $2.00 a year. We have as-
sembled an interesting group of
feature stories for this month;
in February we hope to add a
section reviewing some of the
outstanding books on the Revo-
lution and other subjects of in-
terest to Daughters, as well as
letters from our readers.
ISSUED MONTHLY BY
THE NATIONAL SOCIETY
OF
THE DAUGHTERS OF THE
AMERICAN REVOLUTION
Publication Office:
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING
1776 D St., N.W., Washington 6. D.C.
Signed articles reflect the personal
views of the authors and are not
necessarily a statement of D.A.R. pol-
icy. Products and services advertised
do not carry D.A.R. endorsement.
Single Copy, 35 Cents
Yearly Subscription, $2.00
Send checks payable to Treasurer
General, N.S.D.A.R., 1776 D Street,
N.W., Washington 6, D.C.
MRS. JOHN J. WILSON
National Chairman
D.A.R. Magazine Committee
MRS. ROBERT F. KOHR
National Chairman
D.A.R. Magazine Advertising
Committee
Copyright 1959 by the National So-
ciety, Daughters of the American
Revolution. Entered as second-class
matter, December 8, 1924, at the Post
Office at Washington, D.C., under the
Act of March 3, 1879.
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION MAGAZINE
VOLUME 93, No. 1 JANUARY 1959 WHOLE NUMBER 773
Contents
5 TICONDEROGA
History and restoration of America's great
northern fortress
9 OUR FOREIGN RELATIONS
An interview with Secretary Lansing in
1916, suppressed by President Wilson
13 BEAUVOIR
The last home of Jefferson and Varina Davis
16 A MEDAL FOR A SON OF NORWAY
Commissioner Andersom received the
Americanism Medal
Eleanor Murray
A. R. Pinci
Craddock Goins
17 GHOST TOWNS OF NEBRASKA Vera Freeman Rasmussen
Once thriving communities, now abandoned
19 National Defense
23 With the Chapters
Mary Barclay Erb
30 Junior Membership-Laying the Brick Virginia B. Johnson
32 Genealogical Records-Genealogical Source Material Jean Stephenson
61 D.A.R. Membership as of November 1, 1958
40 Arizona-The Forty-eighth State Mrs. D. Edwin Gamble
State Regent of Arizona
43 Charlottesville, Virginia-Rendezvous of the Third, Fourth,
and Fifth Presidents of the United States Boyce Loving
52 Roll of Honor of the Albemarle (North Carolina) Inglis Fletcher
60 POEM-American Scene Inez Hunt
Zebulon Pike Chapter, Colorado Springs, Colorado
62 Old Battlefields of New Jersey Mary Wendell (Mrs. John W.) Wagner
State Historian of New Jersey
70 A Brief History of the Louisiana State Society Anna Baker Naquin
Press Relations Chairman
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Aerial view of Fort Ticonderoga today. In the left foreground are remnants of the French village
of trappers and other pioneers that clustered under the protecting battlements of the Fort.
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Our Foreign Relations
An Exclusive 1916 and Still Somewhat Timely Interview With Robert Lansing,
Secretary of State, Unexplainedly Suppressed by President Wilson
By A. R. PINCI
E ASILY one half of today's world
news, as it appears in the news-
papers and other periodicals, consists
of topics that are generally termed
"foreign affairs." But foreign affairs,
instead of being foreign to us as a
Nation, are peculiarly our business,
on account of the mysterious network
of diplomacy, which mothers inter-
national relations, of which so much
is heard and so little understood.
But what are
tions?
our foreign rela-
proclaimed the desire for universal
peace, Robert Lansing in a single
statement bared the cause of so much
friction among governments in time
of war.'
"We have," Mr. Lansing said, "an
imperfect code of rules that define
and govern the relations between
belligerents and neutrals. These
rules, which have grown up during
the past 125 years and have been in
some cases differently interpreted by
courts of different countries, have
been frequently found inadequate to
meet new conditions of warfare, and
as a result after every war there have
been changes, modifications, or addi-
tions to the rules, generally through
the process of judicial determination
of the disputes or questions arising
out of the war. Thus the prize courts
of belligerents, for example, may
become the interpreters of belligerent
rights and neutral obligations, and
their interpretations often evidence
an unconscious prejudice arising
from overappreciation of the needs
of the belligerent.2
"Writers on international law re-
lied upon these prize-court decisions
in dealing with the subject of neu-
trality, so that they have laid down
rules formulated indirectly from a
belligerent's point of view.3 In addi-
tion to these influences affecting a
code to govern the conduct and treat-
That is the paramount question,
which only the President of the
United States or the Secretary of
State can answer. It is a question
as well as a riddle, because it _ in-
volves not only Latin America, Eu-
rope, and the Far East, but also
international law. International law
stands as the riddle, whose complex-
ities grow daily. In granting me the
privilege of presenting his views in
the press at this overseas war-torn
time the Secretary of State in 1916,
Robert Lansing, was confronted with
the difficulty of explaining in a
limited way subjects that half a cen-
tury hence will be individually de-
scribed by historians in countless
volumes.
The relations of a nation like the
United States with the rest of the
world, superficially considered either
neutral or belligerent, during a ter-
rible war, attain a formidable aspect -
beside which such subjects as dollar
diplomacy and international peace,
hobbies of preceding Secretaries of
State, were mere child's play.
In the very room facing the wide
expanse of Potomac Park, where on
two or three occasions I saw John
Hay on a diplomatic errand at the
time of the "open door," where
Elihu Root enthused about our fu-
ture relations with Latin America,
where Philander C. Knox adopted
my neologism "dollar diplomacy,"
and where William Jennings Bryan
:'When these words were spoken ruth-
less submarine warfare was commencing;
the second Battle of the Somme was un-
derway; a German mine had caused the
sinking of the Hampshire, with Lord Kitch?
ener aboard, but 6 weeks before.
2 This comment is quite applicable to the
recent Suez Canal dispute and its impact
upon the interests and rights of neutral
countries.
' A new point within this bracket, raised
by both Russian and Chinese policy, is
what to do about seizing and removing
property of citizens of invaded territory, on
the plea of replacement, before peace
treaties and associated agreements can
settle and assess reparations, and worse
still the abduction of civilians often sent to
forced-labor hideaways.
ment of neutrals, international con-
ferences and congresses have gener-
ally confided the drafting of rules
relating to belligerent and neutral
rights to military and naval experts
who naturally approach the subject
from the belligerent's standpoint.
Thus, judicial decisions, textbooks,
and international agreements have
tended to give all the advantage to
belligerents and have shown too little
regard for the rights of neutrals."
"What remedy, if any, have you
in mind?" was the question.
"It appears to me that the time
has come to reverse the process of
treatment of the subject of neutrality
and to deal with it from the point of
view of the neutral," the Secretary
said. "I would suggest that the sub-
ject might be advantageously divided
into two parts: (1) The rights of
neutrals on the high seas and (2)
the duties of neutrals dependent
upon territorial jurisdiction. I have
suggested, as a beginning, to the
American Institute of International
Law that a committee be appointed
to study the problem of neutral
rights and neutral duties, seeking to
formulate in terms the principles un-
derlying the relations of belligerency
to neutrality rather than the express
rules governing the conduct of a
nation at war to a nation at peace,
that would give us a substantial
foundation for a code of rules."
"Has the present war caused any
new conditions?" I asked. "So much
has been said, officially, of similar
situations in preceding wars that
many persons wonder if it is not like
going over, diplomatically, old
ground."
"So many new conditions have
been caused and so many questions
have arisen which were never before
raised or even thought of that it has
been no easy task to meet and an-
swer them. I do not believe that the
relations between neutrals and bel-
[9]
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ligerents were ever more difficult to
adjust. It has never been harder to
preserve neutral rights from invasion
by the determined participants in the
present conflict in which the power,
if not the life, of the great empires
of Europe appears to be at stake.'
"The peoples and governments at
war are blinded by passion; their
opinions are unavoidably biased;
their conduct is frequently influenced
by hysterical impulses, which is per-
haps natural. Patience and forbear-
ance are essential to a neutral gov-
ernment in dealing with such nations.
Acts which under normal conditions
would immediately arouse indigna-
tion must be considered calmly and
without temper.
"Then, too, the conduct of our
foreign relations is made more diffi-
cult because one group of citizens
prefers to have their material inter-
ests unaffected, even if it comes to
abandoning our just rights, while
another group insists on demanding
rights, because they help one or the
other of the belligerents," Secretary
Lansing continued after a pause, his
pleasant smile fading into an expres-
sion of utmost seriousness. "Both
groups are to mind un-American. It
would be a mistake to listen to either,
but the influence which they exert on
public opinion increases the diffi-
culties of diplomacy (for the utter-
ances of one group encourages a for-
eign government to resist our protests
and the utterances of the other causes
irritation)."
"The people," I remarked, "or at
least a portion of the people, seem
to be under the impression that they
are not taken into the confidence of
the administration, and their inabil-
ity to understand why a thing is done
or not done makes it appear as high-
handed and undemocratic statesman-
ship."
"International politics are neces-
sarily to a very large extent beneath
the surface and do not apparently
influence this Government's diplo-
matic actions. Nevertheless, they do
affect such action in many ways and
4 At the time England, France, Italy,
Russia, Belgium, and Japan had sided
together against Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Turkey, and Bulgaria. Germany threat-
ened to commence unrestricted submarine
warfare, which became effective February
1, 1917, and forced the United States into
the war.
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION MAGAZINF~,
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but you must
be done in ev
must try to be
Government t
can in upholdi
and dignity an
"May I hav
general foreig
terns the Unit
han is. supposed. Of
be unwise to disclose
or to give in every
why a' certain policy
ossibly the apparent
seem a good one to
rge, and the Govern-
e real reason without
usly involved with
ment, it must bear
hope that the future
policy. Very often
e result of conditions
be made public and
ver be, made public.
y wish to take the
r confidence, to tell
hat the situation is,
realize that it cannot
ry case. The people
patient and trust the
do the very best it
g the national honor
in advancing the in-
zens."
your views upon the
d States?" I asked.
very general way,"
Secretary Lansing agreed.. "Our re-
lations may be roughly classed as
European, Fa Eastern, and Pan
American. Each embraces the sev-
eral nations grouped in its geograph-
ical distinctio ; together, they em-
brace the worl 1. Frequently, we have
controversies with all and always
with one or the other:' Some of these
disputes are of grave importance,
but the maj or'ty are f over questions
which are constantly: arising in re-
gard to the nationals of the respective
countries. I assume you are inter-
ested especially in the controversies
at this time, rather than in the sub-
ject of treatie and agreements.
"To begin with, the European situ-
ation is extraordinary and requires
extraordinary treatment. In a nut-
shell the situation, which we have to
face in our relations with Great Brit-
ain and Germany, the representative
nations of the two belligerent groups
-the two powers with which we
have had our principal controversies
-is simple. Germany, after develop-
ing the submarine as an effective
engine of destruction, asserted that
she could not, on account of the
resulting conditions, conform to the
established rules of naval warfare,
and we should not, therefore, insist
on strict compliance. On the other
hand, Great Britain has declared that,
on account of the new conditions re-
sulting from submarine activity and
the use of mines on the high seas
and from the geographical position
of Germany, she could not conform
to the established rules of blockade
and contraband and we should not,
therefore, hold her to strict compli-
ance with those rules.
"To complicate matters, Great
Britain had no sympathy with the
German point of view, demanding
that submarines observe the rules of
visit and search without exception,
while Germany insisted that Great
Britain be made to follow the exist-
ing law of blockade and contraband.
"The same arguments have been
adopted by both governments, based
primarily on military necessity, offer-
ing the same excuses for their illegal
acts, but neither has admitted that
the other is in any way justified in
its conduct.
"If we admit that the arguments
advanced are sound-and I am sure
no one will deny that they appear
plausible-and submit to changes in
the rules of naval warfare, we will be
without any standard of neutral
rights. Conceding that the rules can
be modified by a belligerent to meet
new conditions, how far can a bel-
ligerent go in changing the rules?
It is obvious that, if this privilege
existed, the liberties of neutrals on
the high seas would be at the mercy
of every belligerent. As it is, under
the old rules neutrals have to suffer
enough when a state of war exists.
They should not be further restricted
in the exercise of their rights.
"The only alternative, therefore,
is for this Government to hold firmly
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 Approved For Release 2003/05/23 : CIA-RDP80R01731 R000300050063-9
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION MAGAZINE
to those neutral rights which inter-
national law has clearly defined and
to insist vigorously on their observ-
ance by all belligerents. It is true,
as I have already pointed out to you,
that the code of rules which defines
and governs the relations between
belligerents and neutrals is imperfect,
but not in the slightest degree can
the rules so far as they are well
settled be modified unless all the
parties interested consent to the
modifications. This has been the
position of the United States from
the beginning of the war. We have
twice sought to obtain mutual con-
sent from the belligerents to certain
changes in the rules, but in both
cases we failed and the suggestions
were withdrawn. Yet belligerents
cannot expect neutral nations, no
matter whether great powers or ter-
ritorially small states, to submit to
invasions of their rights.
"If Great Britain finds it difficult
to obey the rules of blockade and
contraband, that is her misfortune.
If Germany finds it equally difficult
to conform submarine warfare to the
international naval code, that is her
misfortune."
"It is asserted that violations of
rights may differ in importance."
"That is true, of course," Secre-
tary Lansing explained. "I have fre-
quently pointed this out and said
that they require different treatment.
Thus, to cite a concrete case, the
violation of the natural right of life
is a much more serious offense
against an individual and against
his nation than the violation of the
legal right of property.' There is
not and cannot be adequate recom-
pense for the wrongful destruction
of life, but property losses may be
satisfied by the payment of indem-
nities. If one belligerent violates the
right of life and another belligerent
violates the right of property, you
need not debate for a moment which
one gives this Government the great-
est concern, or which one will call
forth the more vigorous protest and
the more earnest effort to prevent a
repetition of the offense."
"Yet, I regret to say, some Amer-
icans do not recognize the difference.
How many take this view it is im-
5 We considered the Lusitania sinking by
a German submarine in May, 1915.
possible to say, but the number is
not insignificant. Indeed, the view
is held by some who sit in the halls
of Congress. These people openly
complain that the Government does
not exert as much pressure to protect
American property as it does to pro-
tect American lives. They fail to
see that property may be restored to
the owners or an indemnity paid;
they fail to see that lives can never
be restored or adequately indem-
nified. And this mental attitude
makes one wonder if the sensibilities
of the American people have become
so blunted by materialism that they
think as much of the loss of their
property as they do of the lives of
their fellow countrymen."
"There is confusion in many minds
about American loans abroad, official
or commercial or both," I said.
"May we cover that?"-
"The question of loans is an ex-
ceedingly important one," Secretary
Lansing admitted ,6 "little understood
even by well-informed business men.
It will be recalled that, at the request
of-the last [Taft] .administration, a
certain group of American bankers
undertook to participate in the loan
desired by the Government of China.
Our Government wished American
bankers to participate along with
bankers of other nations, because it
desired that the good will of the
United States toward China should
be exhibited in this practical way,
that American capital should have
access to that great country, and that
the United States should be in a
position to share with the other
powers any political responsibilities
that might be associated with the
development of the foreign relations
of China in connection with her in-
dustrial and commercial enterprises.
The present [Wilson] administration
was asked, early in 1913, whether it,
too, would request the same group
of bankers to participate in the loan.
The representatives of the bankers
through whom the present adminis-
tration was approached declared that
they would continue to seek their
share of the loan under the proposed
sial policy of loans and grants now.
7 The loan was for constructing the
Canton-Hankow Railway, whose details I
had discussed with Secretary of State
Knox.
agreements only if expressly re-
quested to do so by the Government.7
"The present administration, how-
ever, declined to make such a re-
quest, because it did not approve
the conditions of the loan or the
implication of responsibility on its
own part which it was plainly told
would be involved in the request.
The conditions of the loan seemed to
us to touch very nearly the admin-
istrative independence of China it-
self, and this administration did not
feel that it ought to be a party to
those conditions. The responsibility
on its part which would be implied
in requesting the bankers to under-
take the loan might conceivably go
the length in some unhappy contin-
gency of forcible interference in the
financial, and even the political, af-
fairs of that great oriental state, just
now awakening to a consciousness
of its power and of its obligations
to its people.
"The conditions included not only
the pledging of particular taxes but
also the administration of those taxes
by foreign agents. A loan thus se-
cured is obnoxious to the principles
upon which the Government of our
people rests. We are willing and
earnestly desirous of aiding the great
Chinese people in every way that is
consistent with their untrammeled
development. We will urge and sup-
port the legislative measures neces-
sary to give American merchants,
manufacturers, contractors, and engi-
neers the banking and other financial
facilities which they now lack and
without which they are at a serious
disadvantage as compared with their
industrial and commercial rivals.
This is our duty. Our interests are
those of the open door-a door of
friendship and mutual advantage,
and it is the only door we care to
enter.
"In that which concerns sales of
arms and ammunition, the duty of a
neutral to restrict such trade has
never been imposed by international
law or by municipal statute. It has
never been the policy of this Govern-
ment to prevent the shipment of
arms or ammunition into belligerent
territory, except in the case of neigh-
boring American republics, and then
only when civil strife prevailed,
which is a very different thing from
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 "When the foreign policies of this
Government are criticized by honest
critics-I mean those critics who are
not influenced solely by political con-
siderations or personal ambitions-
I often would like those critics to
state what they would do if they had
the responsibility. Would they be
bellicose? Would they make de-
mands which, if refused, honor
would compel the exercise of force
to compel? I wonder what their an-
swer would be.
"Responsibility makes a world of
difference in a man's point of view.
When a few words may plunge this
country into war, the man who has
the power to utter those words, if
he is a man who has the welfare of
the Republic at heart, will consider
long before he exercises that power.
He will submit to a deal of criticism
and endure abuse and ridicule by
the passionate and by political oppo-
nents rather than see the young men
of America sent forth to die on the
battlefield." '
So ends the first [and only] anal-
ysis given for publication by the
Secretary of State since the war be-
gan-a time, in other words, when
every phrase must be weighed and
measured. I know that Mr. Lansing
would rather have every intelligent
American citizen make use of the
State Department files if such a thing
were possible. But diplomacy would
not be served, and so the vaults will
retain the secrets of a nation; until
that time when historians may have
access to them, the people must rest
content with explanations like this.
that this feelin
"In this con
once more to t
Some people ha
planted the Mo
tional policy o
policy of the A
are to an exte
sought are the
without impairi
abandonment
trine or any im
Pan Americana
for the Monro
way weakens its
"Yet we mus
than the Monr
not forget that Pan
of wider application
e Doctrine, in that it
the sphere of politics
lication in the varied
enterprise. Bearing
fests itself in c
necessary for
that the peop
republics shou
not only be n
not only friend
must understa
must study th
enter into the
national progr
America has b
the world. Pa
practical form
been made po
geographical is
political institu
mon concept o
path of opport
every Ameri
strive to inspi
and cooperati
tegrity of ' pu
action.
"And befor
operation, it becomes
effective cooperation
es of the American
d know each other
do now. They must
ighbors, but friends;
, but intimates. They
d one another. They
phases of material
development which
varied problems of
anism is an expres-
come the guardian of
will in the end rule
Americanism is the
as well as the most
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION MAGAZINE.
of that idea. It has
sible because of our
lation, of our similar
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ions, and of our corn.
human rights.s The
nment and people of
nity lies plain before
an republic should
n by exhibiting in-
pose and equity of
'Soon after World War II belief pre-
vailed that that would be what Communist
Russia was trying to do-establish a Pan-
Slavic union patterned after our Pan-
American model, but there is no resem-
blance, because it is not a free and
voluntary ensemble but a cluster of vassal
or subjugated countries completely domi-
nated by the Kremlin. Pan-Slavism is no
new idea. Foreign Minister Sergyei D.
Sazonov told me about its desirability when
I visited him in St. Petersburg in 1913.
As this interview (my third with a
Secretary of State) was granted the first
week of July 1916, when the presidential
campaign was just getting underway, Sec-
retary Lansing's words were neither a
defense nor an explanation of Woodrow
Wilson's trying "to keep us out of war,"
the slogan by which the latter was attacked
and satirized but by which he charted
American foreign policy until he no longer
could control it.
"What about the Monroe Doc-
trine?"
"The Monroe Doctrine, of course,
continues unaltered as a national
policy of this country, although with-
in recent years we have found no
occasion-with the exception of the
Venezuelan boundary incident-to
remind Europe that the Doctrine is
always in force. The American re-
publics are no longer children in the
great family of nations. They have
attained maturity. They have come
into a realization of their nationality
and are fully conscious of the respon-
sibilities and privileges which are
theirs as sovereign and independent
states, and during this time there
has grown up a feeling that the re-
publics of this hemisphere constitute
a group separate and apart from the
other nations of the world, a group
which is united by common ideals
and common aspirations. I believe
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the United States;
is an international
ericas. The motives
t different; the ends
ame. Both can exist
extends beyond
and finds its ap
e Monroe Doctrine.
e the erroneous idea
is general. through-
ricanism has sup-
roe Doctrine. It has
g the force of either.
erly opposed to any
f the Monroe Doe-
airment of its vigor.
Doctrine; it in no
an international war when a coun-
try's life is at stake. Austria alone
has officially taken up the question of
limiting the sale of munitions of
war, and this administration was sur-
prised to find that the Austrian Gov-
ernment implied that the observance
of the strict principles of the law
under the conditions which have
developed in the present war is in.
sufficient, as well as the assertion that
this Government should go beyond
the long-recognized rules governing
such traffic by neutrals and adopt
measures to maintain `an attitude of
strict parity with respect to both
belligerent parties.' To this asser.
tion, needless to say, our Government
could not agree. The recognition of
an obligation of this sort, unknown
to the international practice of the
past, would impose upon every neu-
tral nation a duty to sit in judgment
on the progress of a war and to
restrict its commercial intercourse
with a belligerent whose naval suc-
cesses prevented the neutral from
trade with the enemy. Briefly, the
contention submitted was that the
advantage gained in this case by
England and her allies by their su-
periority on the sea should be equal-
ized by the neutral powers through
the establishment of a system of
nonintercourse with the dominant
power."