And, when Sackville-West[6] was promptly sent home for answering a private citizen's inquiry about the two political parties, Dumba is (yet awhile) retained in spite of a far graver piece of business.

There is a tone of sad disappointment here--not because the most thoughtful men want us in the war (they don't), but because for some reason, which nobody here understands, the President, having taken a stand, seems unable to do anything.
All this is a moderate interpretation of sorrowful public opinion here.

And the result will inevitably be that they will pay far less heed to anything we may hereafter say.

In fact men now say here every day that the American democracy has no opinion, can form no opinion, has no moral quality, and that the word of its President never gets as far as action even of the mildest form.

The atmosphere is very depressing.