THE SO-CALLED GERMAN CONSPIRACIES
Immediately after the outbreak of war, our cruisers in foreign
waters were cut off from their base of operations, and the German
Reservists in North and South America were prevented from returning
home owing to the British Command of the Sea. Measures to assist them
were therefore taken by the German Nationals and German Americans
in the United States, which although not in themselves aimed at the
Union, certainly transgressed its laws. Moreover during the year
1915 and succeeding years, several deeds of violence against the
enemies of Germany, or preparations for such deeds, were discovered,
involving more or less serious offences against the laws of America.
Both kinds of activity, comprised under the suggestive term "German
Conspiracies" or "German Plots against American Neutrality," were
skilfully used by our enemies to discredit us, and these agitations
did considerable harm to the German cause, besides being a serious
obstacle in the way of my policy.
Among the measures for assisting the German fleet may be mentioned,
in the first place, the case of the Hamburg-Amerika Line, which has
already been noticed. The New York branch, acting in accordance
with the instructions of their head offices in Hamburg, dispatched
about a dozen chartered vessels, laden with coal and provisions,
to the squadron of German cruisers and auxiliary cruisers then
on the high seas. This cargo was declared in the ships' clearing
papers to be consigned to ports beyond the area of open sea where
the German cruisers were known to be. When it came out later that
the New York branch of the Hamburg-Amerika Line had made use of
this device for coaling German men-of-war the chief officials were
brought up on the charge of deliberately making false declarations
in their clearing papers, and their chief, Dr. Buenz, a man of the
highest character, with three of his subordinates, was condemned,
in December, 1915, to eighteen months' imprisonment in the first
instance.
The severity of the penalty thus inflicted on a man so universally
respected, who had, during his long tenure of the office of
Consul-General in Chicago and New York, gained the warm affection
of many Americans, was regarded merely as a manifestation for the
benefit of the outside world of the American Government's intention
to preserve a strict neutrality. No one supposed that the aged Dr.
Buenz would really have to undergo his sentence, and as a matter
of fact he remained at liberty for some time even after America's
declaration of war. In the summer of 1917 a violent press-campaign
broke out against him, whereupon, despite his ill health he offered
of his own accord to serve his sentence and was removed to the
State prison at Atlanta, where he died in 1918. All honor to his
memory!
Considering that his offence was nothing more than a technical
violation of the letter of the American Customs regulations and
was actuated by no base motive, nor by hostility to the United
States, the punishment inflicted was excessively harsh. It was
pleaded on his behalf in the speech for the defence that America
during the war against Spain had acted in exactly the same way,
when ships were dispatched from the neutral harbor of Hong Kong
to coal Admiral Dewey's fleet before Manila and their cargo was
declared as being scrap-iron consigned to Macao. An indication of
the state of public opinion in the Eastern States of America at
the end of 1915 may be found in the fact that the heavy sentence
on this "German Conspirator" met with general approval apart from
a few emphatic protests on the part of the German-American papers.
A number of German Reserve officers domiciled in America succeeded,
despite the close watch maintained by England on the seas, in effecting
their return to the Fatherland, thanks to a secret bureau in New
York, organized by German-Americans, which provided them with false
or forged American passports. This bureau was closed by the American
police consequent on the discovery in January, 1915, of four German
Reservists, with such papers in their possession, on board a Norwegian
ship in New York harbor. The organizer had apparently fled from
New York some time before, but finally fell into the hands of the
British, and was drowned in a torpedoed transport. The Reservists
were discharged on payment of heavy fines. One, however, was sentenced
to three years' penal servitude. In estimating this affair, it
must be remembered that according to the recognized conventions
of international law, British men-of-war were not justified in
making prisoners of individual unarmed Germans returning to their
homes in neutral vessels. The American Government itself explicitly
affirmed as much when a ship flying the Stars and Stripes was held
up in mid-ocean for examination. As a rule, however, neutral Powers
were too weak to stand up for their rights against British violations
of international law, and so all Germans who were discovered by the
British on their homeward voyage were made prisoners of war. Our
countrymen, therefore, if they wished to do their duty by going to the
defence of their Fatherland, were compelled, in face of this flagrant
violation of the Law of Nations, to provide themselves with false
passports. They had thus to choose between two conflicting duties,
a dilemma all too common in life and one which the individual must
solve according to his lights. The bearers of such false passports
certainly risked heavy penalties, but shrank still more from incurring
any suspicion of skulking or cowardice.
It would seem, moreover, that there is little to choose, from the
moral point of view, between their "sailing under false flags,"
for the purpose of evading the British guardians of the sea, and
the hoisting of neutral ensigns by British ships to escape from
German submarines.
There can, at all events, be no question of a "German conspiracy"
in these cases of forged passports as I had officially announced on
behalf of the German Government, that under the circumstances no one
who remained in America would, on his arrival in Germany, be punished
for not answering the call to the Colors. I can repudiate in the
most express terms any personal responsibility for the activities
of the above-mentioned secret bureau in New York, although attempts
have been made to connect my name with it on the sole ground of a
letter, said to have been written to me by von Wedell before his
departure, which was, as a matter of fact, first made known to me
by its publication in the Press. It is true that this gentleman,
a New York barrister before the war, was a personal acquaintance of
mine; he had, however, immediately after the outbreak of hostilities,
hastened back to Germany to join his own regiment, and later returned
secretly to America, presumably under orders from his superiors,
only to disappear again with equal secrecy after a short stay. I
had never even heard the name of Rueroede before his arrest, but
in view of his denial that any personal profit accrued to him from
his services in providing his fellow-countrymen with documents for
the purpose of facilitating their escape from British vigilance,
I much regret the severity of the penalty inflicted on him.
If the cases of the Hamburg-Amerika Line and the falsification
of the passports damaged the German cause in America, this was
still more true of the acts of violence planned or carried out
by Germans or German-Americans against individuals known to be
hostile to our cause. The few authentic cases of this sort of thing
were, as every impartial person must recognize, engineered by a
few patriotic but foolish hotheads; the more sober and responsible
German elements in the United States were certainly no party to
them.
To the list of these outrages, the enemies of Germany deliberately
added others which probably had no foundation in fact. Thus, for
every accident which occurred in any American munition factory--and
many accidents were bound to happen in the new works which had
sprung up like mushrooms all over the land, and were staffed with
absolutely untrained personnel--"German agents" were regularly
held responsible, and the anti-German Press, particularly the
_Providence Journal_, announced these accidents as "a clear
manifestation of the notorious German system of frightfulness."
Worse still, these papers instilled into their readers the firm
conviction that these crimes were an essential part of German
propaganda, and in their cartoons represented the German, more
particularly the German-American, as a bearded anarchist with a
bomb ready in his hand.
I myself was frequently libelled in this manner by the "Yellow
Press," and represented both by pen and pencil as the ringleader
and instigator of the so-called "conspiracies"; this accusation,
at first tentative, later grew increasingly clear and unmistakable.
The campaign of calumny in which even the more respectable Press
took its share, was, however, directed more particularly against
the Military Attache, Captain von Papen, and the Naval Attache,
Captain Boy-Ed, whose names were openly coupled with some of the
crimes which came before the American Courts of Justice. Both these
officers finally fell victims to this agitation, and had to be
recalled from America in December, 1915, in accordance with a request
from the United States Government. At the same time, in the annual
Presidential message to Congress, statutory measures were laid
down against Americans implicated in these conspiracies, or, as
the phrase ran, against all those "contriving schemes for the
destruction of the independence, and implicated in plots against
the neutrality, of the Government." Not until the declaration of war
against Germany, on April 2nd, 1917, did President Wilson venture
openly to accuse the official German representatives in America
of complicity in these designs, in the following words: "It is
unhappily not a matter of conjecture but a fact proved in our courts
of justice, that the intrigues which have more than once come perilously
near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the industries of the
country have been carried on at the instigation, with the support,
and even under the personal direction of official agents of the
Imperial Government accredited to the Government of the United
States." Since then my own name has been mentioned as the supreme
head of the German "Conspiracy" in America, in the innumerable
propaganda pamphlets with which the official "Committee of Public
Information" has flooded America and Europe. And I have been openly
accused of having instigated and furthered, or at the very least
been privy to, all manner of criminal activities. In interviews with
American journalists I have more than once refuted these calumnies,
which can be supported by no evidence, and were solely intended
to arouse popular feeling against Germany; but I must now refer
again to the more definite of these accusations.
It must be left to the impartial historian of the future to establish
the full truth concerning the German conspiracies in the United
States; any evidence given under the influence of the passions
arising out of the war can, of course, possess only a limited value.
It is obvious from the proceedings concerning the constitution of
the Senate Committee that much of the evidence was prejudiced and
unreliable, probably because it was based solely on information
given by Germans or former Germans, whose identities were kept
strictly secret, and who told deliberate lies, either because,
like Judas, they had received a reward for their treachery, or
because, having severed all ties with their old country, they wished
to secure their footing in the new.
In any case I myself was never a partner to any proceedings which
contravened the laws of the United States. I never instigated such
proceedings, nor did I consciously afford their authors assistance,
whether financially or otherwise. I was in no single instance privy
to any illegal acts, or to any preparations for such acts. Indeed,
as a rule I heard of them first through the papers, and even then
scarcely believed in the very existence of most of the conspiracies
for which I was afterwards held accountable. I shall hardly be
blamed for this by anyone who remembered the number of projects
which we were all duly accused of entertaining, such as the various
alleged plans for the invasion of Canada with a force recruited
from the German-American rifle clubs, and many another wild-cat
scheme attributed to us in the first months of the war.
Such offences against the laws of America as were actually committed
were certainly reprobated by none more sincerely than by myself,
if only because nothing could be imagined more certain to militate
against my policy, as I have here described it, than these outrages
and the popular indignation aroused by them. I fully realized that
these individual acts, in defiance of the law of the land and the
resulting spread of Germanophobia, were bound to damage me in the
eyes of the United States Government and public opinion. It is
thus obviously absurd to accuse me of being responsible in any
way for the acts in question, seeing that any such instigation,
or even approval on my part, would have involved the utter ruin
of my own policy!
Another accusation against my conduct while in America is that
I at all events connived at the commission of crimes under the
direction of officers attached to the Embassy of which I was in
charge, or of other German Secret Service agents. The evidence
for this consists of certain cipher telegrams from the military
authorities in Germany, addressed to the Embassy in Washington;
these were decoded in England and said to contain instructions
for outrages to be committed in Canadian territory. I cannot say
if these messages were genuine or no. Military cipher telegrams,
formally addressed to the military attache, were frequently received
at the Embassy, but were always sent forward at once by the registry
to Captain von Papen's office in New York, as a matter of routine,
and without being referred to me in any way. Von Papen certainly
never told me a word about any instructions from his superiors
that he should endeavor to foment disorders as alleged. For the
present, then, I consider that there is insufficient evidence for
his having received any such orders; but in all these matters I can,
of course, speak only for myself, military matters being entirely
out of my province. Soon after von Papen's recall I entered a protest
against the sending of a successor, as there was no longer any
useful purpose to be served by the employment of a Military Attache,
whose presence would only serve as a pretext for a renewed hostile
agitation against us.
Whether the illegal acts of the Secret Agents sent to the United
States by the military authorities were committed in accordance
with their orders or on their own initiative I had no means of
knowing at the time, nor have I been able to discover since my
return home. I may observe, however, that I more than once urgently
requested the Foreign Office to use all their influence against
the dispatch of Secret Service men to America. Moreover, I had
published in the Press a notice, couched in strong terms and signed
by myself, warning all Germans domiciled in the United States not to
involve themselves in any illegal activities under any circumstances
whatever. And I think I am justified in saying that twelve months
before the severance of diplomatic relations, I had made a clean
sweep of all "conspiracies" and extorted a promise that no more
"agents" should be sent over from Germany. On my arrival home,
I was held by some to have been at fault for not having put down
the movement earlier; to which my reply must be that as a matter
of fact it was the cases of Rintelen and Fay that first earned
us the reputation of "conspirators"; all the rest came to light
later, and were in great measure connected with their machinations.
I took steps, as soon as I heard of these two affairs, to avoid
any repetition of them, in which effort I was successful.
The following throws some light on the attitude of the United States
Government towards me in the matter of the "conspiracies." When
in November, 1915, the Press campaign had reached the height of
its violence, I forwarded a Note to Mr. Lansing, the Secretary
of State, protesting strongly against the unjustifiable attacks
aimed at myself and my colleagues of the Embassy and requesting
that some effort should be made to suppress them, as follows:
"Washington, Nov. 16, 1915.
"The continuance of the baseless attacks on myself and the colleagues
of my Embassy in the columns of the _Providence Journal_ impels
me to ask whether your Excellency cannot see your way to make it
clear that these attacks are not countenanced by the American
Government. Such slanders against the representatives of a friendly
Power who have a right to claim the protection and hospitality
of the United States authorities would be incomprehensible, were
it not a matter of common knowledge that the _Providence Journal_
is a 'hyphenated' Anglo-American paper. To borrow the phrase of
the United States President, this journal is obviously a greater
friend of other countries than its own.
"For the last fifteen months I and all my colleagues have had,
if I may say so, a whole army of American private detectives on
our track. Day and night they have pursued us in the service of
our enemies. Yet, although official German documents have been
stolen, no one has yet succeeded in producing a single proof of
illegal activities on the part of anyone of us.
"I should esteem it a great favor if your Excellency could see your
way to secure this Embassy against a repetition of these baseless
attacks, which have as their sole foundation the pre-supposition
of conspiracies which have no existence in fact."
I never received any reply to this letter, but a short time after
Mr. Lansing while informing me that the American Government felt
itself compelled to ask for the recall of Captains Boy-Ed and von
Papen, as being no longer acceptable to them (this affair I propose
to refer to again in another place), stated in the most explicit
terms that I was in no way implicated in the matter. The fact that
the American Government, even after the departure of the two attaches,
maintained the same intimate relations with me throughout the fourteen
months which elapsed before its diplomatic representatives were
recalled from Germany, proves that this was no empty compliment
but was meant in all sincerity.
I feel myself compelled to insist on these facts, in view of the
efforts subsequently made to represent me as the originator or
leader of the famous "conspiracies," which were later immeasurably
exaggerated by American propaganda. This propaganda has poisoned
the mind of the average American citizen to such an extent that he
firmly believes the German Embassy to have been a nest of anarchists,
who even during the period of his country's neutrality "waged war"
in the most dastardly manner against her.
And yet these stories of so-called conspiracies, with their legions
of conspirators, and resulting lengthy lists of German outrages
in America, will not bear serious examination.
Irrefutable evidence on the subject can be found in the official
report of the Senate Committee of Inquiry into the activities of
German propaganda, which has already been mentioned more than once.
After the depositions of Mr. Bruce Bielaski on this subject had gone
on for two days, Senator Nelson, being tired of this dry recital--he
had already expressed the opinion that most of the evidence given
so far was too academic--asked this officer of the Department of
Justice for a report on the German attempts "to foment strikes
and cause explosions in munition factories" which he apparently
considered to be an integral part of German propaganda. Mr. Bielaski
then referred to the "more important cases of offences against
the law, which had been fathered by the German Government." He
prefaced his statement with the remark that the list he was about
to give was complete in every way; twenty-four cases were dealt with,
and the names of the incriminated individuals given, as reproduced
below:
1. Falsification of passports (von Wedell, Rueroede).
2. Destruction of a bridge in Canada (Horn).
3. Falsification of passports (Stegler, Madden, Cook).
4. Falsification of passports (Luederitz).
5. Attempted destruction of a canal in Canada (von der Goltz, Tauscher,
Fritzen).
6. Falsification of passports (Sanders, Wunmerburg, and two
accomplices).
7. Supplying of coal, etc., to German men-of-war at sea (Bunz, Koeter,
Hofmeister, Poppinghaus).
8. Attempt to bring about a revolution in India (Bopp, von Schack,
von Brinken, Ram Chandra, and twenty-five accomplices).
9. Attempt to blow up a railway tunnel in Canada (Bopp and three
accomplices).
10. Attempted destruction of munition factories and railway bridges
in Canada (Kaltschmidt, and five accomplices).
11. Plot to destroy Allied munition ships by infernal machines (Fay,
Scholtz, Daecher and three accomplices).
12. Plot to destroy Allied munition ships by incendiary bombs (Scheele,
von Kleist, Wolpart, Bode).
13. Attempt to foment strikes in factories engaged in the making
of war materials (Rintelen, Lamar, Martin).
14. Attempt to foment strikes among the dockers (no convictions).
15. Sending of spies to Canada (Koenig).
16. Perjury in the matter of the arming of the _Lusitania_ (Stahl).
17. Attempt to smuggle rubber to Germany (Jaeger and five accomplices).
18. Attempt to smuggle ashore chronometer of an interned German
ship (Thierichens).
19. Attempt to smuggle nickel to Germany (Olsen and two accomplices).
20. Attempt to smuggle rubber to Germany (Newmann and accomplices).
21. Sinking of a German ship at the entrance of an American harbor
(Captain and crew of the _Liebenfels_).
22. Attempt to smuggle rubber to Germany (Soloman and accomplices).
23. Falsification of passports (Rintelen and Meloy).
24. Plan to destroy Allied army horses by means of bacteria (Sternberg).
The above is the substance of the evidence given by Bielaski. I
have no wish to extenuate, in the slightest degree, the few serious
offences against common law included in this list, but I imagine
that the unprejudiced reader will not fail to observe that Mr.
Bielaski found it necessary to rake up everything possible in order
to be able to present the Committee with a respectable catalogue of
crimes instigated by the German Government in the United States.
Apparently his only object was to produce a list of imposing length,
and for this purpose he included in it cases in which it would
be difficult for even the most suspicious mind to discover the
hand of the German Government. Moreover even he himself did not
venture directly to assert the complicity of the representatives
of the German Empire in any single one of these offences. In reply
to Senator Overman, who asked if Captains von Papen and Boy-Ed were
held to be implicated in all these illegal acts, Mr. Bielaski gave
the following evasive answer: "The most important, and most serious
of these illegal acts, were, generally speaking, inspired, financed
and conducted by one or other of the accredited representatives
of Germany." Officials or agents in the service of Germany were,
however, mentioned by name as leaders or accomplices only in the
first fourteen and the two last cases, and I may be allowed to
emphasize the fact that by the admission of Mr. Bielaski himself,
my own name was coupled only with the agitation for a revolution in
India, which was supposed to be a part of Germany's designs. Even
if we take Mr. Bielaski's unconfirmed evidence as being reliable,
the total number of individuals convicted on these charges in the
American Courts of Justice amounts only to sixty-seven, of whom
apparently only sixteen were German nationals; and their offences
fall under the following heads: the case of the Hamburg-Amerika Line
and the five cases of falsification of passports already mentioned:
the so-called Indian plot: one case of successful and three of
attempted sabotage in Canada: and finally the cases numbered ten
to fourteen and twenty-four in Bielaski's list of the illegal acts
planned by the agents Rintelen, Fay and Sternberg.
I propose to go into the details of these cases later. What I am
now concerned to establish is that the list in question is from
one point of view more interesting for what it omits than for what
it includes.
In the first place one may notice the absence of the accusation
previously made against us more than once, that we had plotted
to embroil the United States in war with Mexico and Japan; from
the fact that Mr. Bielaski made no mention of this in his evidence
before the Senate Committee it must be supposed that these ridiculous
stories with which American public opinion had been at one time
so assiduously spoon-fed were finally exploded.
As a matter of fact, during my service in Washington, nothing was
further from my thoughts than to conspire with Mexican Generals,
as any such action would have seriously interfered with my chosen
policy. As concerning Japan I may, incidentally, remark that Mr.
Hale, when he was acting in collaboration with us in propaganda
work, particularly stipulated that we should not undertake anything
which might inflame the existing antagonism between America and
Japan--a condition which Dr. Dernburg accepted without hesitation,
since both he and his assistant Dr. Fuehr, who knew Japan well,
were decidedly opposed to any such agitation.
In order to avoid misunderstanding, I wish expressly to state that I
do not deny that instructions were sent by Zimmermann, the Secretary
of State, to our Embassy in Mexico, which envisaged co-operation with
that country against the United States as well as an understanding
with Japan, but must point out that this was recommended in the
event--_and only in the event_--of the United States declaring
war on us.
I shall return to these instructions later, only remarking here
that it was my duty to pass them on to von Eckhardt.
It should further be noted that the design, frequently imputed
to us in earlier days, of endeavoring to stir up a negro rising
in the United States was also omitted from Mr. Bielaski's list.
To the request of a Senator of a Southern State for his opinion
on this point, he replied without hesitation that no efforts in
this direction had been made by any of the official representatives
of Germany.
It is noteworthy, moreover, that this agent of the Department of
Justice, who had heretofore consistently held us guilty of promoting
strikes in munition factories and sabotage of all kinds, failed
to follow up his charges. I must admit that, in view of what had
already appeared in the Press on the subject of German "conspiracies,"
I had expected that definite proceedings would be taken on this
charge, if they were taken at all; and apparently the members of
the Senate Committee were also of this opinion, for one of them
expressly asked Mr. Bielaski if he had any evidence to produce
on the subject. His reply was: "I know very little, if anything,
of that; I don't think that during our neutrality there were any
instances of criminal activities of that kind."
Again, the Bureau for the Employment of German Workers, which was
likewise at one time proclaimed as a device or cloak for a dangerous
"German Conspiracy," was not mentioned in Bielaski's catalogue,
which conclusively proves that this calumny had been allowed to
drop. The office in question, which was known as the Luebau Bureau
from the name of its chief, was started by Captain von Papen with
the assistance of the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, after Dr. Dumba
and I had pointed out clearly to our fellow-countrymen working in
the American munition factories that any of them who took part in
the manufacture of arms or supplies for our enemies would render
themselves liable to be tried for high treason in their native
land. After this it was the bounden duty of both Embassies to find
employment for all those who voluntarily resigned from the factories
working for the Entente; and from first to last this office, which
had branches in Philadelphia, Chicago, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and
provided about 4,500 men with fresh employment of an unobjectionable
nature, was never guilty of any illegal act.
My open reference to the German law of high treason, however, was
much criticized by the greater part of the American Press, which
stigmatized it as an attempt "to introduce the German criminal
code into America," and as an infringement of the sovereignty of
the United States. Such criticism appears somewhat unwarranted in
view of the wide application given to the law of treason by the
Americans themselves shortly afterwards.
After this digression on the subject of the conspiracies which
had been previously imputed to us, but were now dropped out of
Bielaski's list, I propose to return to the instances of illegal
action which were definitely laid to our charge.
The first of these is the action of Werner Horn, a retired German
officer, which gained us for the first time the opprobrious epithet
of "dynamiters." Horn, of whose presence in America I was not aware
until the story of his crime appeared in the papers, contrived
in February, 1915, to blow up a railway bridge near Vaneboro, in
the territory of Canada, on the line running through the State
of Maine to Halifax. Apparently he believed, as did many other
people, that this railway was being utilized for the transport
of Canadian troops. As the act was quite senseless, and could at
worst only have held up traffic for a few hours, Captain von Papen
saw no objection to advancing to Horn, who was without means, a
sum sufficient to pay the fees of his defending counsel. To the
best of my knowledge Horn was simply kept under observation for
some time, and it was only after America's entry into the war that
he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for a breach of the
regulations with regard to the transport of explosives (he had
apparently carried his dynamite with him in a hand-bag).
Of the three attempts at sabotage in Canada the Welland Canal affair
caused at the time the greatest sensation in New York. The Welland
Canal connects Lake Ontario with Lake Erie, west of Niagara Falls,
i.e., through Canadian territory, and it is a highway for all seaborne
traffic on the great lakes, and particularly for the transport
of corn to the coast. It was therefore considered advantageous
from a military point of view to attempt the destruction of the
canal. This had apparently already been projected in September
by a German adventurer, calling himself Horst von der Goltz, but
for some unexplained reason the idea had been abandoned at the
last moment.
Captain Hans Tauscher, Krupps' representative in New York, was
charged in 1916 with having supplied dynamite for this scheme,
but was acquitted on his calling evidence to prove that he had no
knowledge of the use which was to be made of the explosive.
The first information that I had about the attempt on the Welland
Canal was the report of the proceedings against Captain Tauscher.
Even to-day the full truth of the matter has not yet come to light.
The leading figure of the drama, von der Goltz, while on his way
to Germany in October, 1914, fell into the hands of the British.
When Captain von Papen returned to Germany in December, 1915, under
safe conduct of Great Britain, his papers were taken from him at
a Scottish port; among them was his American check book, and an
examination of this led to the identification of von der Goltz
as the individual who had planned the destruction of the Welland
Canal. The latter, it would seem, was thereupon offered, by the
English authorities, the alternatives of being shot or of returning
to America under a guarantee of personal safety, and giving evidence
against Germany in open court. He chose the latter course, and turned
"State's evidence" in New York, where he was kept under constant
supervision. His statements, however, in view of the pressure brought
to bear upon him, and of his doubtful past, can only be regarded
as of somewhat doubtful value.
During the whole course of my period of office in the United States
I heard nothing about the case of Albert Kaltschmidt, the German
resident in Detroit who after America's declaration of war, was
arrested on a charge of conspiring--apparently some time in 1915--to
blow up a munition factory, an arsenal and a railway bridge in Canada,
and sentenced in December, 1917, to penal servitude, together with
four of his confederates, and the statements made in the American
Press which fastened upon me the responsibility for the deeds of
violence then simmering in the brain of this individual, on the
ground that, in October, 1915, he had received a considerable advance
from a banking account opened in my name and that of Privy Councillor
Albert, I most emphatically deny. Kaltschmidt, who was a well-known
business man had acted on behalf of Albert and von Papen in several
negotiations, with the object of forestalling the Entente's agents
in the purchase of important war material, and had consequently
been in receipt of considerable sums of money for this purpose,
both from von Papen and from the general funds of the Embassy.
This had, of course, earned him the undying hatred of the outwitted
agents of our enemies, and he had also, in company with his sister
and brother-in-law (both of whom were later convicted of complicity
in his designs), got himself disliked for the prominent part he
played in the agitation for an embargo on the export of arms and
munitions of war. It seems quite possible that the charges against
him were the work of private enemies, and that the American Criminal
Court, which condemned him, was hoodwinked by the schemings of certain
Canadians; the fact that these criminal designs on Kaltschmidt's part
only came to light after the United States had become a belligerent
adds probability to the supposition. One thing, however, is certain,
that even if the alleged plot on the part of Kaltschmidt and his
relations had any real existence, the initiative was theirs alone,
and cannot be laid at the door of the Embassy.
The affair of Bopp, the German Consul-General at San Francisco, was
also one which aroused much feeling against Germany. This gentleman
had already, as early as 1915, been accused of having delayed or
destroyed certain cargoes of military material for Russia, with
the aid of certain abettors; his subordinates, von Schack, the
Vice-Consul, and von Brinken, the Attache, were also believed to
be implicated. In the following year he was further charged with
having incited one Louis J. Smith to blow up a tunnel on the Canadian
Pacific Railway, with the idea of destroying supplies on their way
to Russia. All three officials were therefore brought to trial,
but dismissed with a caution. However, at the end of 1916, he and
his two subordinates were again brought up on a serious charge and
sentenced on the testimony of their chief lieutenant, Smith, who
turned State's evidence[*] against them, to a term of imprisonment.
[Footnote *: For the benefit of the reader not familiar with American
legal procedure, it should be explained that in cases where several
individuals are charged in common with an offence, any one of them
may be assured of a pardon if he turns State's evidence and informs
against his associates. This course of action, reprehensible as
it undoubtedly is, from a moral point of view, has the advantage
of facilitating the task of police spies!]
All three resigned from their posts and lodged an appeal, but were
again found guilty in the second instance, after America had entered
the war. Consul-General Bopp and his colleagues if they had in
reality committed the offences of which they were accused, were
certainly actuated in no way by the Embassy or any high authorities,
but must be held solely and entirely responsible for the course
they adopted. In his reports to me, Bopp invariably asserted his
innocence, and I am rather inclined to believe that he really fell
into one of the traps which the Allied Secret Service were always
setting for our officials in America.
According to common report, Consul-General Bopp, Schack and von
Brinken later underwent yet a further term of imprisonment for
their complicity in the so-called Indian conspiracy. I am quite
certain that nothing was ever heard of this affair until after
the American declaration of war; then, however, newspaper reports
were shown me, the effect that in the year of 1916 an attempt had
been made by the Indian Nationalists in San Francisco, with German
co-operation, to bring about an armed rising in British India--an
absolute "wild-goose chase," which, of course, came to nothing. It
was asserted in this connection that a cargo of arms and ammunition
on board the small schooner _Annie Larsen_, and destined for our
forces in German East Africa, was, in reality, dispatched to India
via Java and Siam; but no proofs were brought forward in support
of this statement. In connection with this design, four persons
were sentenced at Chicago, in October, 1917, and ten (according to
Bielaski twenty-nine in all) at San Francisco, in August, 1918, to
long terms of imprisonment, for having "illegally conspired in the
United States to make war against the territories and possessions
of His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of
India." It seems that this affair was exploited with great success
by the American propaganda service to inflame the minds of its
people against Germany. As a matter of fact, I cannot too strongly
condemn on principle all military enterprises undertaken from neutral
territory; but, from the purely moral point of view, I cannot but
remark that it ill befits America to give vent to righteous indignation
over such activities, considering the facilities she afforded to
Czechs and Poles, during her period of neutrality, for supporting
to the utmost of their power their blood brothers in their designs
against the Central Powers. Besides, even if it be admitted that the
schooner in question was actually sent by the Indian Nationalists
with her cargo of arms, it is absurd to regard the dispatch of
this small supply of war material as a crime, and gloss over the
fact that whole arsenals and ammunition columns were being shipped
every day to France!
I now propose, in conclusion, to deal with the illegal activities
attributed by American opinion to the secret agents controlled by
the German military authorities, and sent by them to the United
States.
As regards the machinations of Franz Rintelen, my first information
about him reached me in the late autumn of 1915, and even now I have
to rely for most of the details on the American papers. Rintelen,
who was a banker by profession, and during the war held a commission
as Captain-Lieutenant in the Imperial Naval Reserve, appeared in
America in April, 1915, and presented himself to me during one of
my periodical visits to New York. He declined at the time to give
any information as to his official position in the country, or the
nature of his duties; I therefore wired to the Foreign Office for
some details about him, but received no reply. Some time afterwards
he applied to me for proofs of identity, which I refused to grant
him, and as his continued presence in New York was considered
undesirable by both von Pap en and Boy-Ed, they took steps to have
him sent back to Germany. He was captured, however, by the British,
on his voyage home. Shortly after this, the affair of Rintelen
became a matter of common talk, and the first indications of his
mysterious intrigues for the purpose of interfering with the delivery
of munitions from the United States to the Allies appeared in the
Press; the Foreign Office thereupon instructed me to issue an official
_dementi_ on the subject. Mr. Lansing, the Secretary of State,
however, informed me that, as a matter of fact, Rintelen, while
in England, had confessed himself to be an emissary of the German
Government. I then heard from Captain Boy-Ed that Rintelen, by
representing himself as empowered to purchase large stocks of raw
material for Germany in the United States, had obtained a considerable
advance from the Embassy's funds. This fact was one of the main
reasons for the American Government's request in December, 1915,
that Boy-Ed should be recalled. I was never able either in America
or Germany to discover the details of Rintelen's intrigues; he
himself never allowed anything to leak out about it at the Embassy,
and was unable to send any report on the subject to Germany, as
he was handed over to the United States by the British after the
American declaration of war and sentenced to some years' penal
servitude. The current story in the United States is that he was
proved to have been in touch with the Mexican General Huerta with
the object of bringing about war between the two Republics--an
offence of which the famous list of Mr. Bielaski makes no mention.
Further, he was supposed to have founded, in conjunction with a
member of Congress, and two individuals of evil reputation, a society
of workmen in Chicago, With the object of obtaining from Congress
an embargo on the export of arms--an undertaking which according
to the aforementioned report cost a great deal and proved entirely
valueless from the point of view of the German Government. It is not
known whether this undertaking brought Rintelen and his assistants
within the reach of the Sherman Act against conspiracies inciting
industrial disorders, or whether he had, in addition, made efforts
to bring about strikes in munition works. He was certainly suspected
of endeavoring to cause trouble among the dockers of New York, in
the hope of preventing or delaying the shipment of war material to
the Allies; but even Bielaski admitted before the Senate Committee
that there was no tangible evidence of this.
As a matter of fact, the real grounds of Rintelen's conviction were
apparently that he had prepared, through the agency of a certain
German chemist, domiciled in America, named Scheele, a number of
incendiary bombs, which were apparently to be secreted by three
officers of the German Mercantile Marine on board Allied munition
ships, with the object of causing fires on the voyage. After America's
entry into the war, Rintelen and his accomplices were sentenced
on this count to fairly lengthy terms of imprisonment, and these
sentences they are serving at the present moment in the Federal
prison at Atlanta.
I have been unable to discover how far Rintelen was actually guilty
of the offences imputed to him; but I can only observe that he,
and, in so far as he acted under orders, his superiors, gravely
compromised the position of the German official representatives in
the United States, and afforded our enemies an excellent opportunity
of inflaming public opinion against Germany. It is impossible to
over-estimate the unfortunate effect produced throughout the world
by the discovery of bombs on board a German passenger-steamer,
and of their secretion in the holds of Allied munition ships.
Another attempt of a similar kind, which had most unfortunate results
from our point of view, was that attributed to a German, Lieutenant
Fay, who had likewise come to America in April, 1915, and two other
Germans, by name Scholz and Daeche. Their idea was to put Allied
munition ships out of action by means of infernal machines, fastened
to the rudders, and timed to explode shortly after their departure.
My first information concerning these gentlemen was the report in
the Press of their arrest, which was apparently effected while
they were experimenting with their apparatus under cover of a wood.
A telegraphic inquiry elicited from Berlin the reply that Fay was
absolutely unknown there; it is possible, however, that he had
really come to America on some business of an official nature.
He and his accomplices were sentenced in May, 1916, to several
years' penal servitude, although no proof was adduced that any
real damage could possibly have been caused by their contrivance,
which experts informed me was not a practicable one.
Last of all, on Bielaski's list comes the case of the German agent
Stermberg, of whom, also, I had never heard. In January, 1915, he was
arrested on a charge of having attempted to inoculate horses, purchased
for the Allied Armies, with disease germs. As his practical knowledge
was not great, his intentions were in excess of his performances.
Bielaski, in his evidence before the Senate Committee, at first
hesitated to mention this case at all, and was only induced to do
so by the insistence of another Government official; it is clear,
therefore, that he attached very little importance to it, and, as a
matter of fact, the charge was not supported by any witnesses in
a court of law, or by any legal attestation.
In a word, during all our period of service in America, as
representatives of the German Empire, practically nothing of all
that was alleged against us was proved to be true. A few of the
stories of illegal activity, however, were based on some foundation
of truth, and were popularly but erroneously supposed to further
the interests of Germany. By these means we were first brought
into discredit, and from that time on, every rumor, or piece of
gossip concerning acts of violence on the part of Germans, whether
based on fact or not, served only to increase the wide-spread popular
suspicion and distrust of everyone and everything German.