I often asked Lieutenant von X---- what the German army thought about
the future of Germany, and I do not think he suspected in the least
that I had any motive except "intelligent interest." He had come to
look upon me as a family institution, and without telling lies in
so many words, I allowed him to believe that I felt Germany's vast
superiority over the rest of the world. It is a simple thing for any
woman to make any German man believe this. The only difficult thing for
him to understand is that a creature can be benighted enough to have a
contrary opinion.
Lieutenant von X---- admitted that the German army as well as navy
prayed for "The Day." He thought that Germany could "walk through
France," and she, being far superior to Russia in every way, could
not help but win in a war against that power, even without the help
of Austria. He seemed to feel contempt for Austria and everything
Austrian compared with what was German, but he said "she can be useful
to us." As for England, she might be a tougher job, but it would "have
to come," and with the improved Zeppelins (which England had been a
"stupid-head" not to copy as well as she could) and the Krupp secrets,
there was no doubt who would come out on top: Germany, the one power
on earth who deserved by her gloriousness to be over all others.
America, too, eventually must become Germanized, as Lieutenant von
X---- believed she was already well on the way to be, with her growing
German population, immense German financial interests, and influential
newspapers. The plans for American conquest were already mapped out
by the German War Office, who never left anything to chance. He said
that this was no secret, or he would not mention it. There was once
a hope that Germany and England might make a combination against the
United States, but that had been abandoned, he said. Once I should
have taken this for a joke, and also the expectation that when France
was conquered (with Belgium thrown in as a matter of course) Antwerp
and Dunkirk and Calais would all be German, becoming the strongest
military ports in the world; but I had learned better now. I knew that
Lieutenant von X----, who seldom originated any ideas of his own, was
simply repeating to me the sort of talk he heard among his brother
officers....
(The English-American Governess from this point relates a most
remarkable story, every word of which is vouched for as the truth.
She tells how Von Hindenburg, the Crown Prince, and other notables
met in secret sessions at the palace where she was residing; about
their relations with Prince Mohammed Ali and Enver Bey, the Envoy from
Turkey; the intrigues in the days before the outbreak of the war; the
scenes in the royal households when war was declared; and how she
escaped at midnight, September 15, 1914. It is a revelation that gives
one a clearer insight into the causes of the Great War and how the
Hohenzollerns had planned for many years to enter upon a conquest of
Europe and America.--EDITOR.)