Coincident with the publication in Germany of the famous memorandum of
Prince Lichnowsky squarely putting the blame for the outbreak of the
world war upon the Kaiser and the German militarists, there also
appeared in circular form in Germany a letter written by a certain Dr.
Mühlon, a former member of the Krupp Directorate now living in
Switzerland, corroborating the charges made by the Prince. The Mühlon
letter was briefly referred to in an official dispatch from Switzerland
received in Washington on March 29 as having produced an animated
discussion throughout the empire.
A copy of the Leipziger Volkszeitung of March 20 tells how, in a
discussion of the Lichnowsky and Mühlon memoranda before the Main
Committee of the Reichstag on March 16, Vice Chancellor von Payer tried
to minimize the value of Dr. Mühlon's statements by asserting that the
former Krupp Director was a sick, nervous man who no doubt did not
intend to injure his country's cause, but who was hardly responsible for
his actions because of his many nervous breakdowns. Later, the Berliner
Tageblatt printed the text of Dr. Mühlon's letter, which was evidently
written before the resignation of Dr. Karl Helfferich as Vice Chancellor
last November. As translated by The London Times, Dr. Mühlon's
memorandum reads: