THE WORLD WAR: PERIOD OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 509



diplomatic relations would probably, rather than possibly, mean war?
I do not now recall any new influences that have recently come into
the field, and I would very much like to know what has made this
impression on your mind.
  You may of course be right. All along there has been reason to
fear that such might be the outcome. And I quite agree with you
that we ought to think our course out very frankly and carefully,
blinking nothing.
  I do not think that it would be wise in any case to lay the matter
publicly before Congress. The most that I could do would be to
consult with the leaders on the hill. To lay the matter publicly
before Congress would in effect be to announce that we expected war
and might be the means of hastening it.
  There are some wise and experienced men on the Senate Committee
on Foreign Relations and it is quite possible that we might get useful
guidance from them. For myself I do not doubt the constitutional
powers of the Executive in this connection; but power is a different
matter from wise policy.
  Your answer to some of the questions I raised or suggested in my
last brief note to you on the news from Vienna will necessarily form
a part and a very fundamental part of our discussion of the whole
situation. If the Imperial and Royal Government thinks that it can
put a very different face upon the Ancona case by representations
which it thinks us bound in fairness to it to consider, how can we
refuse to discuss the matter with them until all the world is con-
vinced that rock bottom has been reached?
      Cordially and faithfully Yours,
                                              WOODROW WILSON


865.857 An 2/95: Telegram
The Ambassador in Austria-Hfangary (Penfleld) to the Secretary of
                              State

                        VIENNA, December 29, 1915-5 p. m.
                            [Received December 30-2: 45 p. in.]
  1063. Austro-Hungarian answer 83 to second Ancona note 84 re-
ceived at 4: 30 this afternoon. It is communication upwards of 3,000
words. Will require all night to translate and encipher.
  Note is practical compliance with our demands. It acknowledges
culpability of submarine commander who it states has been punished.
Will pay indemnities under certain conditions, but specifically leaves

' Foreign Relations, 1915, supp., p. 655.
8Ibid-, p. 647.