The intimate papers of Colonel House arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.

250 INTIMATE PAPERS OF COLONEL HOUSE

British Ambassador, and Count and Countess von Moltke,
who were invited at our request.
'Von Tirpitz and I left the dining-room together and we
stood in one of the drawing-rooms and talked for an hour.
He evidenced a decided dislike for the British, a dislike that
almost amounted to hatred. One of the things that amused
me most was his suggestion that the English "looked down
upon Germans and considered them their inferiors."
'Von Tirpitz spoke of the anti-German feeling in the
United States and cited our newspapers in evidence of it.
He also spoke of Admiral Mahan's articles which have a proBritish leaning. I assured him our newspapers did not indicate our real feeling, and asked him whether the press of
Germany represented the feeling of the Germans toward us.
He replied, "Not at all." He said the Government had
absolutely no control over the German newspapers, but in
England, he noticed, the English brought their papers around
to the Government point of view whenever the situation required it.
'I spoke of the courage and character of the President.
This I illustrated by different incidents —one being his
insistence in taking part in the funeral parade of the Vera
Cruz sailors, and another his refusal to be intimidated or
coerced into recognizing Huerta. I drew clearly the distinction between the President and Mr. Bryan. I wanted official
Germany to know that if any international complications
arose between our two countries, they would have to deal
with a man of iron courage and inflexible will.
'Von Tirpitz and I talked largely of armaments, I pleading
for a limitation in the interest of international peace and
he stating vigorously the necessity of Germany's maintaining
the highest possible order of military and naval organization.
He disclaimed any desire for conquest and insisted it was
peace that Germany wanted, but the way to maintain it was
to put fear into the hearts of her enemies.