May 6th, 1916.
Dear Lady,
Why yes, do send Miss Shelly, we will be glad to take care of her and do what we can for her.
I want you to absolve me from any recommendation of that wireless to the Austrian Emperor. It was R. R. Bowker who was anxious to have such a message sent, and not I.
You probably know how we finally got wireless messages and cables to Austria through [Bernstorff] and the German Embassy. It occurred to me that our most powerful friends would be the Germans or German-Americans themselves. Acting upon this inspiration I approached Mr. Ridder of the Staats-Zeitung and urged him, on behalf of the leading Germans or this country, to see [Bernstorff] and explain to him how the Germans themselves would view with anxiety any fatal decision in regard to Miss Masaryk. Meantime, we persuaded Colonel House to go and see [Bernstorff] and impress him with the urgency of our appeal, and since then Mrs. Paul Warburg, through Mr. Schiff, obtained an interview with [Bernstorff] and the Austrian Charge d'affaires, and we have now been able to definitely [ascertain] that wireless messages and cables have been sent to Austria, through Germany, by [Bernstorff] and Mr. Ridder.
I feel that we have now done everything we could think of to help Alice Masaryk and that we can only wait patiently for news. I would like to add that Mr. Ridder was emphatic in asserting that he personally did not believe the [rumor] of Alice Masaryk's execution, if only for the good reason that it would have been practically impossible to have received this news so soon.
Affectionately yours,
Comments