accomplishing what could not be done by confidential negotiations; that
he did not believe in annexation and that he was ready at any time to
help end the war.


III

Before the Blockade

President Wilson's policy during the first six months of the war was
one of impartiality and neutrality. The first diplomatic
representative in Washington to question the sincerity of the executive
was Dr. Constantine Dumba, the exiled Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, who
was sent to the United States because he was not a noble, and,
therefore, better able to understand and interpret American ways! He
asked me one day whether I thought Wilson was neutral. He said he had
been told the President was pro-English. He believed, he said, that
everything the President had done so far showed he sympathised with the
Entente. While we were talking I recalled what the President's
stenographer, Charles L. Swem, said one day when we were going to New
York with the President.

"I am present at every conference the President holds," he stated. "I
take all his dictation. I think he is the most neutral man in America.
I have never heard him express an opinion one way or the other, and if
he had I would surely know of it."

I told Dr. Dumba this story, which interested him, and he made no
comments.