306 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -XXII 



make the position of the Berlin and Washington govern 

 ments especially difficult. The American papers attack 

 me because I yield too much to Germany, the German 

 papers attack Von Billow because he yields too much to 

 America, and these little questions remain. If Von Billow 

 and I were allowed to sit down and settle them, we could 

 do so at short notice ; but behind him stands the Eeichstag, 

 and behind our Secretary of State and myself stands the 

 American Congress/ 7 



I referred to such questions as the tonnage dues, the 

 additional tariff on bounty-promoted sugar, Samoa, the 

 most-favored-nation clause, in treaties between Germany 

 and the United States, in relation to the same clause in 

 sundry treaties between the United States and other 

 powers, and said, &quot;What a blessing it would be if all 

 these questions, of which both governments are tired, 

 and which make the more important questions constantly 

 arising between the two countries so difficult to settle, 

 could be sent at once to a tribunal and decided one way 

 or the other! In themselves they amount to little. It 

 is not at all unlikely that most of them possibly all of 

 them would be decided in favor of Germany; but the 

 United States would acquiesce at once in the decision by 

 a tribunal such as is proposed. And this is just what 

 would take place between Germany and other nations. 

 A mass of vexatious questions would be settled by the 

 tribunal, and the sovereign and his government would 

 thus be relieved from parliamentary chicanery based, 

 not upon knowledge, but upon party tactics or personal 

 grudges or inherited prejudices. 



He seemed now more inclined to give weight to these 

 considerations, and will, I hope, urge his government to 

 take a better view than that which for some time past 

 has seemed to be indicated by the conduct of its repre 

 sentatives here. 



In the afternoon I went to the five-o clock tea of the 

 Baroness d Estournelles, found a great crowd there, in 

 cluding the leading delegates, and all anxious as to the 



