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Show PRESIDENT AWAITS ! WORD FROMPENFIELD Attitude of Austria Regard- j ing Submarine Warfare Not Known. WASHINGTON, Feb. 22. No move ! was made here today in the crisis in : relations between the United States and : the central . powers. The indications still were that tomorrow's cabinet meeting meet-ing would be followed by arrangements for the president to address congress with a request for authority to deal with ; any emergeucy that may arise alter ad- i journment. There Mas no announcement of impor- i tant dispatches received at the state de- j partment during the day. The govern- j meat is awaiting official confirmation j of news dispatches telling of the release by Germany of the American prisoners! or the Yarrowdale, a report from Am- ; bassador Penfield at Vienna on Aus- j tria's attitude, and definite information about Americans in Turkey. There virtually is no hope here of a favorable reply to the memorandum recently re-cently presented to the Austrian foreign office asking whether the pledges concerning con-cerning submarine warfare given the j United States in the Ancona and Persia J cases were still in effect. An answer that will make inevitable the severance of diplomatic relations with Austria is. expected at any time. President Wilson had no conferences, on the holiday. He attended a Washington Washing-ton 's birthday celebration, pledged a new allegiance to the flag and listened to a speech by Senator Pomerene of Ohio, who vigorously denounced Germany Ger-many and American pacifists. P. A. S. Franklin, president of the International In-ternational Mercantile Marine, called at the navy department and talked with Secretary Daniels and Assistant Secretary Secre-tary Roosevelt. It is understood that they discussed the arming of American merchant ships, a question on which the government has not yet announced a decision. de-cision. Representative Bennet of New York made a speech in the house advocating . arming or convoying merchantmen. BERNE, via Paris, Feb. 22, 4 a. m. Austria's reply to the United States defining de-fining her position in the submarine war is known in Berlin, according to the I Frankfurter Zeitung, which predicts that a breach in relations between Vienna Vien-na and Washington is inevitable. The paper's Berlin correspondent says: ''The memorandum which President Wilson has sen$ to the Vienna govern- , nient leaves no doubt that the breach of relations between the United States and , Germany will soon be followed by a breach with Austria-Hungary." |