The 3d of August, 1914, Gen. Raul Madero, my commanding officer in
the Constitutionalist army, granted me six months' leave, with the
privilege of extension, and I left at once for El Paso, Tex., where I
met Consul Kueck at the Del Norte Hotel. I was informed that Capt. von
Papen would be in New York two weeks later.
On the 8th of August I left El Paso for Washington, D. C., where I
stopped only one day, having learned there that von Papen would see me
in New York in about a fortnight. Aug. 10 I left Washington and went to
Asbury Park, N. J., spending about a week there on a visit to relatives
of Raul Madero's, and reaching New York about the middle of August. I
put up at the Holland House.
Although I surmised, to say the least, that I was again to be employed
on service which must be secret, I had taken no steps to conceal my
identity. All the way up from the border I had been a loose-tongued,
hotly enthusiastic German, full of bombastic enthusiasm. I kept it up
in New York. Interviews with me can be found in the papers of that
period in which I predicted the speedy downfall of the Allies and
Germany's sure triumph.
My reason for wearing this cloak of simple obviousness should be
apparent. It was my only sure disguise. Too many people knew me or
knew of me as a former servant of the German Government to let me hope
I could escape their scrutiny. The only way to hoodwink them was to
make myself seem such a fool that I could not possibly be a spy.
So I made myself very apparent. I spent a great deal of money in very
foolish ways. I talked a great deal. Result: All those interested
said to themselves: "This young idiot has picked up a bit of money in
Mexico. It is burning his pockets, and among other things has caused
him to imagine himself a person of importance. He a German agent!
Germany's far too clever to choose such agents as he--who cannot even
keep his mouth shut."
So I got the results I wanted. I have never flattered myself on being
exceptionally astute. My only claim to cleverness must lie in the fact
that I have generally realized that the people I was dealing with were
even greater simpletons than I.
In the midst of all my strutting and gabbling, however, I found early
opportunity to report at the Imperial German Consulate General, No.
11 Broadway. Two or three days later, Aug. 21, 1914, the Vice-Consul,
Dr. Kraske, wrote me a letter, in his own hand, telling me that "a
gentleman who is interested in you"--Capt. von Papen, to wit--would
meet me next morning at the consulate. It may be worth remarking that
Dr. Kraske, of his own volition, addressed the letter to "Baron von der
Goltz." I had used merely my Mexican military title in registering at
the Holland House.
I met Von Papen next day at the consulate. The conversation at first
touched on prevailing conditions in Mexico, to which country, as well
as to the United States, you may remember, Capt. von Papen was jointly
accredited as Military Attaché. Attention was next devoted to a scheme
proposed to the German Embassy by a man who had a plan for raiding
Canadian towns on the Great Lakes, using motor boats armed with machine
guns. In consequence of unfavorable information concerning the writer
this scheme was rejected, as were several other tentative ones for
various reasons. Among them was a plan to invade Canada with armed
forces composed of German reservists in the United States, aided by
German warships then in the Pacific. Another, for a time considered
rather more feasible, was to seize the Island of Jamaica, in the
British West Indies, also with naval aid. This plan, indeed, went so
far that my Mexican rank of captain received German ratification, in
order to give me military status should I be captured on British soil
with arms in my hands. But this, too, was given up.
The activity finally decided on was a plan to blow up the locks of the
canals connecting the Great Lakes, the main railway junctions of Canada
and the largest grain elevators, with the double purpose of destroying
one of England's chief sources of food supply and of throwing the
Dominion into such a panic of suspicion that public opinion would
demand the retention at home of the Canadian contingent of troops then
mobilized for transportation to England.
Our conferences led me to believe the plan was fairly feasible and
Capt. von Papen thereupon put entire responsibility for the details of
execution into my hands.
So the Welland Canal plot--the obvious part of it, and the only part
any outsider till now has heard a breath of--was hatched and began
to grow up under my protection. Why it was permitted to be quite so
obvious I must reserve the explanation for a few paragraphs. The one
fact to note now is that it was almost transparent, and that I took no
precautions to make it otherwise. Instead, I even talked and boasted of
it and my important part in its execution.
Two things were needed--men and explosives. The first I got by going to
Baltimore and asking for volunteers from among the crews of the German
merchant ships laid up there. There were plenty of them. I selected
the ones I wanted, and their captain promised to pay them off at the
Baltimore Consulate and send them to New York under charge of a ship's
officer. In Baltimore I was also supplied with a revolver, my own being
out of order, and with a passport for one Bridgeman Henry Taylor--a
passport issued by your American State Department, supposedly to an
American citizen. But he, it merely happened, did not exist.
Back in New York, I reported to Capt. von Papen, and, as I needed money
for the sailors who were coming, he gave me a check for two hundred
dollars, drawn by himself and payable to Bridgeman Taylor. I got it
cashed through the kindly offices of an acquaintance, Mr. Stallford, a
member of the German Club on Central Park South. The sailors arrived
in New York, were quartered in various places and were immediately put
under the surveillance of detectives, just as I had expected and indeed
hoped. The explanation of my cherishing such a seemingly absurd hope I
must again momentarily defer.