received its support. Press and Reichstag were divided. Supporting
the Foreign Office were the _Lokal Anzeiger_, the _Berliner Tageblatt_,
the _Cologne Gazette_, the _Frankforter Zeitung_, the _Hamburger
Fremdemblatt_, and the _Vorwärts_.

The Navy had the support of Count Reventlow, Naval Critic of the
_Deutsche Tageszeitung_, the _Täglische Rundscha_, the _Vossische
Zeitung_, the _Morgen Post_, the _B. Z. Am Mittag_, the _Münchener
Neueste Nachrichten_, the _Rheinische Westfälische Zeitung_, and the
leading Catholic organ, the _Koelnische Volks-Zeitung_.

Government officials were also divided. Chancellor von
Bethmann-Hollweg led the party which demanded an agreement with the
United States. He was supported by von Jagow, Zimmermann, Dr. Karl
Helfferich, Secretary of the Treasury; Dr. Solf, the Colonial Minister;
Dr. Siegfried Heckscher, Vice Chairman of the Reichstag Committee on
Foreign Relations; and Philip Scheidemann, leader of the majority of
the Socialists in the Reichstag.

The opposition was led by Grand Admiral von Tirpitz. He was supported
by General von Falkenhayn, Field Marshal von Mackensen and all army
generals; Admirals von Pohl and von Bachmann; Major Bassermann, leader
of the National Liberal Party in the Reichstag; Dr. Gustav Stressemann,
member of the Reichstag and Director of the North German Lloyd
Steamship Company; and von Heydebrand, the so-called "Uncrowned King of
Prussia," because of his control of the Prussian Diet.

With these forces against each other the internal fight continued more
bitter than ever. President Wilson kept insisting upon definite
promises from Germany but the Admiralty still had the upper hand.