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Show BELIEVE GERARD IS' IKGORMECTLY OOOTED State Department Does Not Like the Speech tft Berlin Dinner.' WASHINGTON, Jan. 8. The report by the Overseas News agency that Ambassador Am-bassador Gerard, at a public welcome back to Germany, had said that w never since the beginning of the war have the relations between the United States and Germany been so cordial as now" was officially inquired into by the state department de-partment today through a cable to the ambassador personally. It was indicated that the report as quoted did not convey a true view of Herman-American relations, which have commonly been described as strained through the recent submarine activities. Officials, in making the announcement of the inquiry, refused to add any further comment except that they wished to know exactly what he had said. r 14 The action of the department was interpreted as evidence ot the importance import-ance attached to the possible effects of such an utterance, especially upon public pub-lic opinion in. the allied countries, where published reports have shown an impression im-pression that the president's note was in some way connected with the central powers' "peace proposal. Every effort has .been made to dispel that belief. "It is felt that if the Overseas reports re-ports were allowed to go unchallenged that feeling would be very much increased. in-creased. As a result, the department was prompt in, ma king public its inquiry to the ambassador, and probably will give out his reply when-received." BERLIN, Jan. 8, 12:30 p. m., via London, 10:12 p. m. The dinner given by the American Association of Commerce Com-merce and Trade of Berlin in honor of . Ambassador Gerard continues in the ' forefront, of interest. It is recognized, as pointed out in a Berlin dispatch to the Cologne Gazette, as a political de-, velopment of high importance, leading the German editors to devote their Monday Mon-day reviews of the week largely to a discussion of its bearing on future German-American relations and upon peace prospects. The event has, in general, a friendly press, and Ambassador Gerard 's declarations declara-tions regarding the excellent condition of the relations between Germany and the United States are generally welcomed, although, the outspokenly anti-American newspapers do not retrain from exploiting exploit-ing them in an unfavorable sense. The Tages Zeitung finds that the American ambassador "violated all diplomatic dip-lomatic proprieties'1 in speaking of the relations at all, and particularly in associating as-sociating their prolongation with the continuance in oiftce of Chancellor von Bethmann-Hollweg, Field Marshal von Hindenburg, chief of general staff, and General Ludendorf, first quartermaster general. Theodore Wolff, in the Tageblatt, lamenting la-menting that in the flood of misunderstanding misunder-standing such reasonable exchanges of opinion and information are not more frequently heard, expresses high pleasure pleas-ure at the course of the dinner. |