The Land of Deepening Shadow Part 23

HOW GERMANY DENIES

Germany, according to Reichstag statements, is spending millions of pounds upon German propaganda throughout the universe. The trend of that propaganda is:--

1. To attempt to convince the neutral world that Germany cannot be beaten; and

2. Above all, to convince Great Britain (the chief enemy) that Germany cannot be beaten.

The only factors really feared by the Germans of the governing cla.s.s are the Western front and the blockade.

I went into Germany determined to try to find out the truth, and to tell the truth. I had an added incentive to be thorough and work on original lines, since I was fortunate enough to secure possession of an official letter which advised those whom it concerned to give no information of value to Americans in general.

I also got accurate information that the Wilhelmstra.s.se had singled me out as one American in particular to whom nothing of value was to be imparted.

The German, with his cast-in-a-mould mind, does not understand the trait developed among other peoples of seeing things for themselves. He is unacquainted with originality in human beings.

He thinks a correspondent does not observe anything unless it is pointed out to him.

Last summer, for example, one could learn in the Wilhelmstra.s.se that the potato crop was a glittering success. By walking through the country and pulling up an occasional plant, also talking to the farmers, I concluded that it was a dismal failure, which conclusion I announced in one of the first newspaper articles I wrote after I had left Germany. Recent reports from that country show that I was right, which increases my conviction that the _confidential tips_ given by Germany's professional experts, who instruct neutral visitors, do very well to make Germany's position seem better than it actually is, but they seldom stand the acid test of history.

Seeking to invent excuses is not peculiar to the Germans, but it is more prevalent among them than among any other people that I know.

In this one respect the German Government is a Government of the people. Some of the diplomatic explanations which have emanated from Berlin during the war have been weird in their absurdity and an insult to the intelligence of those to whom they were addressed.

President Wilson did not accept the official lie concerning the sinking of the _Arabic_, in view of the positive proof against Germany, and Germany backed down. President Wilson did not accept the official lie concerning the sinking of the _Suss.e.x_.

Incomprehensible as it is to the Teutonic mind, he attached greater weight to the first-hand evidence of reliable eye-witnesses, plus fragments of the torpedo which struck the vessel, than to the sacred words of the German Foreign Office, which had the impertinence to base its case on a sketch, or alleged sketch, hastily made by a U-boat manipulator whose artistic temperament should have led him to Munich rather than to Kiel. The crime and the lie were so glaring that Germany once more backed down.

Germany lied about the Dutch liner _Tubantia_. As in the case of the _Suss.e.x_, the evidence of the fragments of torpedo was so incontrovertible that Berlin had to admit that a German torpedo sank the _Tubantia_. Indeed, one fragment contained the number of the torpedo. During my travels in the Fatherland at that time I found no doubt in the minds of those with whom I discussed the matter that a German submarine sank the vessel, though many were of the opinion that it was a mistake.

The Wilhelmstra.s.se is tenacious, however, and we awoke one morning to read, what was probably its most remarkable excuse. To be sure, a German torpedo sank the _Tubantia_, but it was not fired by the Germans. The expert accountant who was in charge of the U-boat learned upon consulting his books that he fired that torpedo on March 6. It did not strike the _Tubantia_ until March 16. So that it had either been floating about aimlessly and had encountered the liner, or perhaps the cunning British had corraled it and made use of it. At any rate, Berlin disclaimed all responsibility for its acts subsequent to the day it parted company with the German submarine.

The path of the torpedo, however, had been observed from the bridge of the Tubantia.

I remarked to one of my well-informed confidants among the Social Democratic politicians that although it is perfectly true that a rolling stone gathers no moss, it is equally true that a moving torpedo leaves no wake.

"Yes," he said with a twinkle in his eye, "our Foreign Office is well aware of that. Have you not noticed the significance of the two dates, March 6, when the torpedo is said to have been fired, and March 16, when it struck? Do you not see that our diplomats have still one more loop-hole in case they are pressed? Is it not clear that they could find a way out of their absurd explanation by s.h.i.+fting the responsibility to the man or the men who jotted down the date and transferred it? The question in my mind is: Who lost the 1 from the 16?"

Be that as it may, little Holland, enraged at the wanton destruction of one of her largest vessels, was not in a position to enforce her demands. Therefore Germany did not back down--that is, not publicly.

My description of the return of the Prussian Guard to Potsdam naturally aroused the wrath of a Government which strives incessantly, to hide so much from its own people and the outside world.

Directly the article reached Germany the Government flashed a wireless to America that no members of the _Potsdam_ Guard returned to Potsdam from Contalmaison. This is a typical German denial trick. I never mentioned the _Potsdam_ Guard.

I had referred to the _Prussian_ Guard.

If any reader of this chapter cares to look into the files of English newspapers at the time of the Contalmaison battle, for such it was, they will find confirmation of my statements as to the presence of the Prussian Guard in the English despatches published in the second week in July.

The Contalmaison article has in whole or in part been circulated in the United States, and also in the South-American Republics, and probably in other neutral countries. This has now called forth a semi-official detailed denial, which I print herewith.

It is signed by the Head Staff Doctor at Potsdam, one Geronne, by name. He divides his contradiction into ten clauses. Each of the first nine contains an absolute untruth.

The last is a mere comment on a well-known, German statesman, who told me that as I was seeking the truth in Germany I had better go and find it at Potsdam.

I wish to deal with the denials one by one, as each is a revelation of German psychology.

1. The hospital train, This says "Hospital which reached Potsdam on train" (singular). I August 4, and was there described hospital trains unloaded, brought wounded (plural). It may be true men from various troop that one train did not divisions. There were no contain any Prussian Guards.

Prussian Guards among them. I did not happen to see that train. All the trains that I saw unloaded Prussian Guard Reserves.

2. No wounded man is I have never said that kept concealed in Germany. any wounded man was All are consigned to kept concealed in Germany.

public hospitals or I have pointed out lazarets, where they may that the whole system of at any time be visited the German placing of the by their relatives and wounded is to hide from friends. the German population, and especially in Social Democrat districts, the extent of their wounded.

3. Hospital trains travel This is absolutely untrue.

by day as well as by night, The number of wounded arriving and, in accordance with at the depots in Germany is instructions, are unloaded now so great that the trains only in the daytime. In are obliged to be unloaded case they reach their whenever they arrive, by day destination during the or by night. I have witnessed night, the regulations both.

provide that they are to wait until the following morning before unloading.

4. In order that the loading The whole of this paragraph or unloading of the vehicles is a transparent distortion which transport the wounded of fact. What happens at to the lazarets may proceed Potsdam and what happens as rapidly as possible, it everywhere else is that a is necessary to keep the cordon of police surrounds surroundings of the train the scene and, drives the clear. The wounded must public by force in the usual also be spared all annoyance Prussian way, if necessary, and curiosity on the part from the scene. I described of the public. the method by which I witnessed what was going on at the railway station from the railway station refreshment room itself.

5. Dead men have never been I saw the dead men removed.

unloaded from the lazaret trains at Potsdam--therefore there could have been none on August 4, 1916. The principle of transporting the wounded is based upon the ability of the wounded to bear transportation.

All those who suffer during the journey are removed to a hospital at the frontier.

6. The furniture vans A transparent untruth used for transporting on the face of it. If only wounded to the hospitals one train came into Potsdam at Potsdam and other why use furniture vans at cities have proved a great all? The furniture vans success. These vans, are used for purposes of moreover, all bear the sign concealment, and because of the Red Cross, and may the very large ambulance easily be recognised as supply always on duty at hospital vehicles. the great military hospitals at Potsdam was unequal to the task. I saw no Red Cross indications.

7. That men who are My statement is that all seriously wounded should the German wounded at give one an impression of the present stage of the weariness goes without war, lightly or otherwise, saying. Lightly wounded compare badly with the men who travel from the English and French Somme to Boulogne may wounded, whom I have make a better appearance seen. They are utterly than the seriously wounded war weary and suffering who have made the long not so much from sh.e.l.l journey from the West shock as from surprise front to Potsdam. shock, the revelation of the creation of a British Army that had never occurred to the German soldiers.

8. As to the great "Hus.h.!.+ I have made inquiries hus.h.!.+ machinery"--what is of British officials, and one to call the attempt they tell me that it is to keep the truth from absolutely untrue that the neutrals by closing channel is closed to English harbours near the neutral s.h.i.+pping when the Channel to neutral s.h.i.+pping English hospital transports for whole days at a proceed to England.

time--during which the This untruth is on a par English s.h.i.+p-transports of with the others.

wounded proceed to England?

9. The figures published An interesting revelation by the Ministry of War as to German casualty lists.

concerning the numbers of It is stated by this head men dismissed from lazarets medical officer of Potsdam (hospitals) are based upon that these lists are drawn up unquestionable statistics. from the men _dismissed_ from These statistics remain as lazarets (hospitals), that is given--despite all the to say, this doctor admits aspersions of our enemies. that the custom is now to keep back the casualty lists until the man is _discharged_, whereas your British lists, I am informed on authority, are published as speedily as possible after the soldier is _wounded_. The whole of the German wounded now in hospitals have not yet, therefore, been included in casualty lists--the casualties which are forcing the Germans to employ every kind of labour they can enslave or enroll from Belgium, Poland, France, and now from their own people from sixteen up to sixty years of age of both s.e.xes.

10. It would prove interesting For obvious reasons I to learn the name of the decline to subject my "patriotic German Statesman," friend to the certain who is said to cherish the punishment that would follow same opinions as this writer disclosure of his name.

in the _Daily Mail_.

I regret to burden readers with a chapter so personal to myself, but I think that anyone who studies these German denials with the preceding chapter on the Contalmaison wounded will learn at least as much about the German mind as he would by studying the famous British White paper of August, 1914.

CHAPTER XXIV

GERMANY'S HUMAN RESOURCES

Three factors are of chief importance in estimating German man-power. First, the number of men of military age; second, the number of these that are indispensable in civil life; third, the number of casualties. Concerning the last two there are great differences of opinion among military critics in Allied and neutral countries. As regards the first there need be little difference, although I confess surprise at the number of people I have met who believe the grotesque myth that Germany has systematically concealed her increase in population, and that instead of being a nation of less than seventy millions she has really more than one hundred millions.

It is safe to say that at the outbreak of war Germany was a nation of 68,000,000, of whom 33,500,000 were males. Of these nearly 14,000,000 were between 18 and 45; 350,000 men over 45 are also with the Colours. The boys who were then 16 and 17 can now be added, giving us a grand total of some 15,000,000.

Normally Germany employed men of between 18 and 45 as follows:--Mines, 600,000; metals, 800,000; transport, 650,000; agriculture, 3,000,000; clothing, food preparation, 1,000,000, making a total of 6,050,000.

Up to this point there can be little difference of opinion. From this point on, however, I must, like others who deal with the subject, make estimates upon data obtained. During my last visit to Germany I systematically employed a rough check on the figures derived through the usual channels. Concentrated effort to obtain first-hand information in city, village, and countryside, north, east, south, and west, with eyes and ears open, and vocal organs constantly used for purposes of interrogation, naturally yielded considerable data when carried over a period of ten months. The changes from my last visit and from peace time were also duly observed as were the differences between Germany and the other nations I had visited during the war. Walking, of which I did a colossal amount, was most instructive, because it afforded me an opportunity to study conditions in the villages. Discreet questioning gave me accurate statistics in hundreds of these that I visited, and of many more hundreds that I asked about from people whom I met on my travels. For example, in Oberammergau, which had at the beginning of the war 1,900 inhabitants, about 350 had been called to the Colours when I was there, and of these thirty-nine had been killed.