THE DAYS BEFORE THE WAR
After my return from Kiel to Berlin a period of calm ensued.
No one seemed to think that the murders at Sarajevo would have
any effect upon the world.
The Emperor had gone North on his yacht, but, as I believe, not
until a certain line of action had been agreed upon.
Most of the diplomats started on their vacations. Sir Edward
Goschen, British Ambassador, as well as the Russian Ambassador,
left Berlin. This shows, of course, how little war was expected
in diplomatic circles.
I went on two visits to German country-houses in Silesia, where
the richest estates are situated. One of these visits was to the
country-house of a Count, one of the wealthiest men in Germany,
possessed of a fortune of about twenty to thirty million dollars.
He has a great estate in Silesia, farmed, as I explained, not by
tenant farmers, but by his own superintendents. In the centre is
a beautiful country house or castle. We were thirty-two guests in
the house-party. This Count and his charming wife had travelled
much and evidently desired to model their country life on that
of England. Our amusements were tennis, swimming and clay-pigeon
shooting, with dancing and music at night. Life such as this,
and especially, the lavish entertainment of so many guests, is
something very exceptional in Prussian country life and quite
a seven months' wonder for the country side.
Some days after my return to Berlin the ultimatum of Austria
was sent to Serbia. Even then there was very little excitement,
and, when the Serbian answer was published, it was believed that
this would end the incident, and that matters would be adjusted
by dilatory diplomats in the usual way.
On the twenty-sixth of July, matters began to boil. The Emperor
returned on this day and, from the morning of the twenty-seventh,
took charge. On the twenty-seventh, also, Sir Edward Goschen
returned to Berlin. I kept in touch, so far as possible, with
the other diplomats, as the German officials were exceedingly
uncommunicative, although I called on von Jagow every day and tried
to get something out of him. On the night of the twenty-ninth,
the Chancellor and Sir Edward had their memorable conversation in
which the Chancellor, while making no promises about the French
colonies, agreed, if Great Britain remained neutral, to make
"no territorial aggressions at the expense of France."
The Chancellor further stated to Sir Edward, that ever since he
had been Chancellor the object of his policy had been to bring
about an understanding with England and that he had in mind a
general neutrality agreement between Germany and England.
On the thirtieth, Sir Edward Grey refused the bargain proposed,
namely that Great Britain should engage to stand by while the
French colonies were taken and France beaten, so long as French
territory was not taken. Sir Edward Grey said that the so-called
bargain at the expense of France would constitute a disgrace
from which the good name of Great Britain would never recover.
He also refused to bargain with reference to the neutrality of
Belgium.
Peace talk continued, however, on both the thirtieth and
thirty-first, and many diplomats were still optimistic. On the
thirty-first I was lunching at the Hotel Bristol with Mrs. Gerard
and Thomas H. Birch, our minister to Portugal, and his wife.
I left the table and went over and talked to Mouktar Pascha,
the Turkish Ambassador, who assured me that there was no danger
whatever of war. But in spite of his assurances and judging by
the situation and what I learned from other diplomats, I had
cabled to the State Department on the morning of that day saying
that a general European war was inevitable. On the thirty-first,
_Kriegsgefahrzustand_ or "condition of danger of war" was
proclaimed at seven P. M., and at seven P. M. the demand was made
by Germany that Russia should demobilise within twelve hours. On
the thirtieth, I had a talk with Baron Beyens, the Minister of
Belgium, and Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador, in the garden
of the French Embassy in the afternoon. They both agreed that
nothing could prevent war except the intervention of America.
Both Ambassador Cambon and Minister Beyens were very sad and
depressed. After leaving them I met Sir Edward Grey upon the
street and had a short conversation with him. He also was very
depressed.
Acting on my own responsibility, I sent the following letter to
the Chancellor:
"Your Excellency:
Is there nothing that my country can do? Nothing that I can
do towards stopping this dreadful war?
I am sure that the President would approve any act of mine
looking towards peace.
Yours ever,
(Signed) JAMES W. GERARD."
To this letter I never had any reply.
On the first of August at five P. M. the order for mobilisation
was given, and at seven-ten P. M. war was declared by Germany on
Russia, the Kaiser proclaiming from the balcony of the palace
that "he knew no parties more."
Of course, during these days the population of Berlin was greatly
excited. Every night great crowds of people paraded the streets
singing "Deutschland Ueber Alles" and demanding war. Extras,
distributed free, were issued at frequent intervals by the
newspapers, and there was a general feeling among the Germans
that their years of preparation would now bear fruit, that Germany
would conquer the world and impose its _Kultur_ upon all nations.
On the second of August, I called in the morning to say good-bye
to the Russian Ambassador. His Embassy was filled with unfortunate
Russians who had gone there to seek protection and help. Right
and left, men and women were weeping and the whole atmosphere
seemed that of despair.
On the day the Russian Ambassador left, I sent him my automobile
to take him to the station. The chauffeur and footman reported to
me that the police protection was inadequate, that the automobile
was nearly overturned by the crowd, and that men jumped on the
running board and struck the Ambassador and the ladies with him
in the face with sticks. His train was due to leave at one-fifteen
P. M. At about ten minutes of one, while I was standing in my
room in the Embassy surrounded by a crowd of Americans, Mrs.
James, wife of the Senator from Kentucky and Mrs. Post Wheeler,
wife of our Secretary to the Embassy in Japan, came to me and
said that they were anxious to get through to Japan via Siberia
and did not know what to do. I immediately scribbled a note to
the Russian Ambassador asking him to take them on the train with
him. This, and the ladies, I confided to the care of a red-headed
page boy of the Embassy who spoke German. By some miracle he
managed to get them to the railroad station before the Ambassador's
train left, the Ambassador kindly agreeing to take them with
him. His train, however, instead of going to Russia, was headed
for Denmark; and from there the two ladies crossed to Sweden,
thence to England, and so home, it being perhaps as well for them
that they did not have an opportunity to attempt the Siberian
journey during this period of mobilisation.
The Russian Ambassador reciprocated by confiding to me a Russian
Princess who had intended to go out with him but who, intimidated,
perhaps, by the scenes on the way to the station, had lost her
nerve at the railway station and refused to depart with the
Ambassador. She remained for a while in Berlin, and after some
weeks recovered sufficient courage to make the trip to Denmark.
On the morning of August fourth, having received an invitation
the day before, I "attended" at the Palace in Berlin. In the room
where the court balls had been held in peace times, a certain
number of the members of the Reichstag were assembled. The diplomats
were in a gallery on the west side of the room. Soon the Emperor,
dressed in field grey uniform and attended by several members of
his staff and a number of ladies, entered the room. He walked
with a martial stride and glanced toward the gallery where the
diplomats were assembled, as if to see how many were there. Taking
his place upon the throne and standing, he read an address to
the members of the Reichstag. The members cheered him and then
adjourned to the Reichstag where the Chancellor addressed them,
making his famous declaration about Belgium, stating that "necessity
knew no law," and that the German troops were perhaps at that
moment crossing the Belgian frontier. Certain laws which had
been prepared with reference to the government of the country,
and which I will give in more detail in another place, as well as
the war credit, were voted upon by the Reichstag. The Socialists
had not been present in the Palace, but joined now in voting the
necessary credits.
On the afternoon of August fourth, I went to see von Jagow to
try and pick up any news. The British Ambassador sat in the
waiting-room of the Foreign Office. Sir Edward told me that he
was there for the purpose of asking for his passports. He spoke
in English, of course, and I am sure that he was overheard by a
man sitting in the room who looked to me like a German newspaper
man, so that I was not surprised when, late in the afternoon,
extra sheets appeared upon the street announcing that the British
Ambassador had asked for his passports and that Great Britain
had declared war.
At this news the rage of the population of Berlin was indescribable.
The Foreign Office had believed, and this belief had percolated
through all classes in the capital, that the English were so
occupied with the Ulster rebellion and unrest in Ireland that
they would not declare war.
[Illustration: CROWDS IN FRONT OF THE EMBASSY AWAITING BULLETINS,
AUGUST, 1914.]
[Illustration: THE AMERICAN EMBASSY WAS THE CENTRE OF INTEREST
TO MANY IN THOSE EARLY DAYS OF THE WAR.]
After dinner I went to the station to say good bye to the French
Ambassador, Jules Cambon. The route from the French Embassy by
the Brandenburg Thor to the Lehrter railway station was lined
with troops and police, so that no accident whatever occurred.
There was no one at the station except a very inferior official
from the German Foreign Office. Cambon was in excellent spirits
and kept his nerve and composure admirably. His family, luckily,
were not in Berlin at the time of the outbreak of the war. Cambon
instead of being sent out by way of Switzerland, whence of course
the road to France was easy, was sent North to Denmark. He was
very badly treated on the train, and payment for the special
train, in gold, was exacted from him by the German government.
Then I went for a walk about Berlin, soon becoming involved in
the great crowd in front of the British Embassy on the Wilhelm
Strasse. The crowd threw stones, etc., and managed to break all
the windows of the Embassy. The Germans charged afterwards that
people in the Embassy had infuriated the crowd by throwing pennies
to them. I did not see any occurrences of this kind. As the Unter
den Linden and the Wilhelm Platz are paved with asphalt the crowd
must have brought with them the missiles which they used, with
the premeditated design of smashing the Embassy windows. A few
mounted police made their appearance but were at no time in
sufficient numbers to hold the crowd in check.
Afterwards I went around to the Unter den Linden where there was
a great crowd in front of the Hotel Adlon. A man standing on the
outskirts of the crowd begged me not to go into the hotel, as he
said the people were looking for English newspaper correspondents.
So threatening was the crowd towards the English correspondents
that Wile rang up the porter of the Embassy after we had gone
to bed and, not wishing to disturb us, he occupied the lounge in
the porter's rooms.
Believing that possibly the British Embassy might be in such
a condition that Sir Edward Goschen, the British Ambassador,
might not care to spend the night there, I ordered an automobile
and went up through the crowd which still choked the Wilhelm
Strasse, with Holand Harvey, the Second Secretary to the British
Embassy. Sir Edward and his secretaries were perfectly calm and
politely declined the refuge which I offered them in our Embassy.
I chatted with them for a while, and, as I was starting to leave, a
servant told me that the crowds in the street had greatly increased
and were watching my automobile. I sent out word by the servant
to open the automobile, as it was a landau, and to tell the
chauffeur, when I got in, to drive very slowly.
I drove slowly through the crowd, assailed only by the peculiar
hissing word that the Germans use when they are especially angry
and which is supposed to convey the utmost contempt. This word
is "_Pfui_" and has a peculiar effect when hissed out from
thousands of Teutonic throats.
As we left the outskirts of the crowd, a man of respectable
appearance jumped on the running board of the automobile, spit
at me, saying "_Pfui_," and struck Harvey in the face with
his hat. I stopped the automobile, jumped out and chased this man
down the street and caught him. My German footman came running
up and explained that I was the American Ambassador and not an
Englishman. The man who struck Harvey thereupon apologised and
gave his card. He was a Berlin lawyer who came to the Embassy
next morning and apologised again for his "mistake."
The following day, August fifth, I spent part of the time taking
over from Sir Edward the British interests. Joseph C. Grew, our
First Secretary, and I went to the British Embassy; seals were
placed upon the archives, and we received such instructions and
information as could be given us, with reference to the British
subjects in Germany and their interests. The British correspondents
were collected in the Embassy and permission was obtained for
them to leave on the Embassy train.
During the day British subjects, without distinction as to age
or sex, were seized, wherever found, and sent to the fortress
of Spandau. I remonstrated with von Jagow and told him that that
was a measure taken only in the Middle Ages, and I believe that
he remonstrated with the authorities and arranged for a cessation
of the arbitrary arrests of women.
Frederick W. Wile, the well-known American correspondent of the
_London Daily Mail_, was to go out also with the British
party, on the ground that he had been a correspondent of a British
newspaper. In the evening I went to the Foreign Office to get his
passport, and, while one of the department chiefs was signing
the passport, he stopped in the middle of his signature, threw
down the pen on the table, and said he absolutely refused to
sign a passport for Wile because he hated him so and because
he believed he had been largely instrumental in the bringing
about of the war. Of course this latter statement was quite
ridiculous, but it took me some time before I could persuade
this German official to calm his hate and complete his signature.
I have heard a few people say that Wile was unduly fearful of
what the Germans might do to him, but the foregoing incident
shows that his fears were well grounded, and knowing of this
incident, which I did not tell him, I was very glad to have him
accept the hospitality of the Embassy for the night preceding
his departure. He was perfectly cool, although naturally much
pleased when I informed him that his departure had been arranged.
Sir Edward and his staff and the British correspondents left next
morning early, about six A. M. No untoward incidents occurred
at the time of their departure which was, of course, unknown to
the populace of Berlin.
During these first days there was a great spy excitement in Germany.
People were seized by the crowds in the streets and, in some
instances, on the theory that they were French or Russian spies,
were shot. Foreigners were in a very dangerous situation throughout
Germany, and many Americans were subjected to arrest and indignities.
A curious rumour spread all over Germany to the effect that
automobiles loaded with French gold were being rushed across the
country to Russia. Peasants and gamekeepers and others turned
out on the roads with guns, and travelling by automobile became
exceedingly dangerous. A German Countess was shot, an officer
wounded and the Duchess of Ratibor was shot in the arm. It was
sometime before this excitement was allayed, and many notices
were published in the newspapers before this mania was driven
from the popular brain.
There were rumours also that Russians had poisoned the Muggelsee,
the lake from whence Berlin draws part of its water supply. There
were constant rumours of the arrest of Russian spies disguised as
women throughout Germany.
Many Americans were detained under a sort of arrest in their
hotels; among these were Archer Huntington and his wife; Charles
H. Sherrill, formerly our minister to the Argentine and many
others.