The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-01-09

nard Baruch?"
| Yes, SIR"
when did you last see him z"
! AT the Gridiron dinner in Wash
| ington, December o." Mr.. Tumuity re-
piled.
Did you come closely in contact
with him there?"
II sat abou- Eve seats away from
him and exchanged greetings with
! him
Did you have any private CONVEX
/ sation with him?"
None at ALL"
Secretary Lansing then took the
! witness stand.
| SECRETARY LANSING
TELLS HOW NOTE HANDLED
| Possibly l had better start" said
| Secretary Lansing, by stating that l
! assume that confidential communica-
! tons between the President and my
! self are not part OF the inquiry
l can give you a physical history of
! tho note.
THE draft of the note was received
| by me front the White House at
| o'clock Monday afternoon. I called
, Mr. Polk, counsellor for the depart
ment. and Mr.. woolsey, law adviser
attached to my office, and discussed
| the three forms In which the note
had to be prepared and sent forth /
then handed 1t to Mr.. Woolsey, en-
joining the strictest secrecy. that he
might take 1t to the three confidential
stenographers There it was to be
prepared and delivered to Mr.. SAL
mon, chief of the Index Bureau.
1.-The index clerk was to encipher
the note. He said that 1t would take
| so long to cipher the three notes that
he would have to have an assistant.
| directed that he engage his most
confidential man for the work. He
did so. was given the copies and the
two men locked themselves In the
room. They were given the copies at
s o'clock. and at 230 Tuesday morn
ing December 10, the notes were en-
ciphered delivered to the telegraph
room and sent
ION Tuesday afternoon I discussed
with the President the time when the
note should be made public. The sea-
son for secrecy was the courtesy due
to the nations who were to receive
the note that it should not be pub
lished here before they received 1t,
We decided 1t would take at least
two days for 1t to reach Austria and
Rumania, ana We decided 1t should
be made public on Thursday morning.
Tuesday evening about o'clock
copy OF the note was handed to Mr..
James, chief of the Information Blu
reau. He at once took 1t up with
the printing office.
1T was read by one man and then
sent to the printing office.
AT about II o'clock ! received the
newspaper correspondents and told
them that I would have an important
communication for them at O'Clock
to be released the next morning. /
told them in confidence, as was
afraid Its contents might come back
from Europe in garbled form, and l
did not wish to make 1t public on that
account. Further l thought II cour-
teous not to make II public until II
had been received by the countries
to which It was addressed. l told
them 1t did not contain any proposal
of peace nor offer of mediation.
MIR. WILLARD KNEW
OF CONTENTS OF NOTE
THAT evening at my house. Ambas-
sador Willard (to Spain) told me he
had been advised of the contents OF
the note by the President AMI dis
cussed the advisability of his address
ing Spain on the subject. The next
morning the note was made public
In the press"
Mr. Lansing said he could not recall
conference with newspaper men.
Neither did he know who handled the
note at the government printing Of
fee.
Mr.. Lansing said that at the confer
ence with the newspaper men there
were three other gentlemen present
waiting to see him. but that he did
not know they were there until after
ward.
Who were these men, asked Rep
resentative Lenroot.
"a. Z. Snowden, of New York; r.
Gaylor, a civil engineer of the navy,
and Or. NJ T, Mclean. of the navy"
said Mr.. Lansing. The two naval
| officers were about to proceed to Haiti
| for the government"
| Representative Bennett, addressing
| Mr.. Lansing. said the latter had stated
| he never had specialized, and asked:
For that reason isn't 1t possible that
| you gave little thought to the effect
some statement made by you might
! have On the stock market7"
II never gave II thought" said
the secretary. 1T never entered my
mind. I was merely anxious to pre-
serve the courtesy due to foreign ma
! tons in the matter"
where was the conference with
Ambassador Willard ?"
"At my house on Tuesday evening"
Secretary Lansing later explained
that Ambassador Willard sent a mes
sage to Spain on Wednesday after
| noon.
In response to questions by Repre-
sentative Chiperfield, Mr.. Lansing said
forty-three messages were sent to
American diplomatic representatives
abroad.
Secretary Lansing said no aid not
know II representatives Of Wall Street
papers were present at his conference
with newspaper men. Neither did he
know the duties OF the Wall Street
Journal representative present