THE AMERICANS AT THE OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES
Of course, as soon as there was a prospect of war, the Embassy
was overrun with Americans. Few Americans had taken the precaution
of travelling with passports, and passports had become a necessity.
All of the Embassy force and all the volunteers that I could
prevail upon to serve, even a child of eleven years old, who
was stopping in the house with us, were taking applications of
the Americans who literally in thousands crowded the Wilhelm
Platz in front of the Embassy.
The question of money became acute. Travellers who had letters
of credit and bank checks for large sums could not get a cent
of money in Germany. The American Express Company, I believe,
paid all holders of its checks. When, with Mr. Wolf, President
of the American Association of Commerce and Trade in Berlin, I
called upon the director of the Imperial Bank and begged him
to arrange something for the relief of American travellers in
Germany, he refused to do anything; and I then suggested to him
that he might give paper money, which they were then printing
in Germany, to the Americans for good American credits such as
letters of credit and bank checks, and that they would then have a
credit in America which might become very valuable in the future.
He, however, refused to see this. Director Herbert Gutmann of
the Dresdener Bank was the far-seeing banker who relieved the
situation. Gutmann arranged with me that the Dresdener Bank,
the second largest bank in Germany, would cash the bank checks,
letters of credit and the American Express Company's drafts and
international business checks, etc., of Americans for reasonable
amounts, provided the Embassy seal was put on the letter of credit
or check to show that the holder was an American, and, outside
of Berlin, the seal of the American Consulate. This immediately
relieved the situation.
With the exception of Mr. Wolf who was, however, quite busy with
his own affairs, I had no American Committees such as were organised
in London and Paris to help me in Berlin. In Munich, however, the
Americans there organised themselves into an efficient committee.
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Pulitzer were in Berlin and immediately went
to work in our Embassy. Mr. Pulitzer busied himself at giving
out passports and Mrs. Pulitzer proved herself a very efficient
worker. She and Mrs. Ruddock, wife of our Third Secretary, and
Mrs. Gherhardi, wife of the Naval Attaché, with Mrs. Gerard formed
a sort of relief committee to look after the Americans who were
without help or resources.
I arranged, with the very efficient help of Lanier Winslow, for
special trains to carry the Americans in Germany to Holland.
Trains were run from Switzerland, Munich and Carlsbad across
Germany to Holland, and from Berlin were run a number of trains
to Holland.
The first room on entering the Embassy was the ticket-office,
and there, first Mr. Winslow, and afterwards Captain Fenton,
sold tickets, giving tickets free to those who were certified
to be without funds by the committee of Mrs. Pulitzer and Mrs.
Gerard. This committee worked on the second floor of the Embassy
in the ballroom, part of it being roped off to keep the crowds
back from the ladies.
Each week I bought a number of steerage passages from the Holland
American Line and the ladies resold them in the ballroom. We had
to do this because the Holland American Line had no licence to sell
steerage tickets in Germany; but by buying two or three hundred
at a time direct from the Company, I was enabled to peddle them
out in our ballroom to those Americans who, in their eagerness to
reach their own country, were willing to endure the discomforts
of travel in the steerage.
Winslow accompanied one special train to Holland, and I must
say that I sympathised with him when I learned of what he had
to do in the way of chasing lost hand-baggage and finding milk
for crying babies.
These special trains were started from the Charlottenburg station,
in a quiet part of Berlin so that no crowd was attracted by the
departure of the Americans. The Carlsbad train went through very
successfully, taking the Americans who had been shut up in Carlsbad
since the commencement of the war.
One of the curious developments of this time was a meeting of
sympathy for the Americans stranded in Germany, held in the town
hall of Berlin on the eleventh of August. This meeting was commenced
in one of the meeting rooms of the town hall, but so many people
attended that we were compelled to adjourn to the great hall.
There speeches were made by the over-Burgomaster, von Gwinner,
Professor von Harnack and me. Another professor, who spoke excellent
English, with an English accent, made a bitter attack upon Great
Britain. In the pamphlet in which the speeches of Harnack and
the over-Burgomaster were published this professor's speech was
left out. In his speech stating the object of the meeting, the
over-Burgomaster said: "Since we hear that a large number of
American citizens in the German Empire, and, especially, in Berlin,
find themselves in embarrassments due to the shutting off of
means of return to their own country, we here solemnly declare
it to be our duty to care for them as brethren to the limit of
our ability, and we appeal to all citizens of Berlin and the
whole of the German Empire to co-operate with us to this end."
Professor von Harnack, head of the Royal Library in Berlin, is
one of the ablest of the German professors. In his speech he gave
expression to the feeling that was prevalent in the first days
of the war that Germany was defending itself against a Russian
invasion which threatened to blot out the German _Kultur_. He
said, after referring to Western civilisation: "But in the face
of this civilisation, there arises now before my eyes another
civilisation, the civilisation of the tribe, with its patriarchal
organisation, the civilisation of the horde that is gathered and
kept together by despots,--the Mongolian Muscovite civilisation.
This civilisation could not endure the light of the eighteenth
century, still less the light of the nineteenth century, and
now in the twentieth century it breaks loose and threatens us.
This unorganised Asiatic mass, like the desert with its sands,
wants to gather up our fields of grain."
Nothing was done for the Americans stranded in Germany by the
Germans with the exception of the arrangements for the payment
of funds by the Dresdener Bank on the letters of credit and the
dispatching of special trains by the railroad department of the
German government. As a matter of fact, nothing more could have
been required of the Germans, as it was naturally the duty of
the American government to take care of its citizens stranded
abroad.
Almost the instant that war was declared, I cabled to our government
suggesting that a ship should be sent over with gold because,
of course, with gold, no matter what the country, necessaries
can always be bought. Rumours of the dispatch of the Tennessee
and other ships from America, reached Berlin and a great number
of the more ignorant of the Americans got to believe that these
ships were being sent over to take Americans home.
[Illustration: WORKING IN THE EMBASSY BALLROOM AT THE OUTBREAK
OF HOSTILITIES, AUGUST, 1914.]
[Illustration: WAR DAYS IN BERLIN. AMBASSADOR GERARD AND HIS STAFF.]
One morning an American woman spoke to me and said she would
consent to go home on one of these ships provided she was given
a state-room with a bath and Walker-Gordon milk for her children,
while another woman of German extraction used to sit for hours
in a corner of the ballroom, occasionally exclaiming aloud with
much feeling, "O God, will them ships never come?"
In these first days of the war we also made a card index of all
the Americans in Berlin, and, so far as possible, in Germany;
in order to weed out those who had received the passports in
the first days when possibly some people not entitled to them
received them, and to find the deserving cases. All Americans
were required to present themselves at the Embassy and answer
a few questions, after which, if everything seemed all right,
their passports were marked "recommended for transportation to
America."
I sent out circulars from time to time to the consuls throughout
Germany giving general instructions with regard to the treatment
of Americans. The following circular sent out on August twelfth
is a sample:
"AMERICAN EMBASSY,
BERLIN, August 12, 1914.
"_To the Consular Representatives_
_of the United States in Germany,_
_and for the general information of_
_American Citizens._
"A communication will to-morrow be published in the _Berlin
Lokal Anzeiger_ regarding the sending of a special train to
the Dutch frontier for the special conveyance of Americans.
Other trains will probably be arranged for from time to time.
No further news has been received regarding the sending of
transports from the United States, but applications for
repatriation are being considered by the Embassy and the
various consular offices throughout Germany according to the
Embassy's last circular and the announcements published in
the _Lokal Anzeiger_.
"All Americans leaving Berlin must have their passports stamped
by the Foreign Office, for which purpose they should apply to
_Geheimer Legationsrat_ Dr. Eckhardt at Wilhelmstrasse
76. Americans residing outside of Berlin should ascertain from
their respective consular representatives what steps they should
take in this regard.
"Letters for the United States may be sent to the Embassy and
will be forwarded at the first opportunity.
"German subjects who desire to communicate with friends in
Great Britain, Russia, France or Belgium, or who desire to
send money, should make their requests to the Imperial Foreign
Office. Americans are permitted to enter Italy. The steamers
of the Italian lines are running at present, but are full for
some time in advance. The Embassy is also informed that the
steamer from Vlissingen, Holland, runs daily at 11 A. M. The
Ambassador cannot, however, recommend Americans to try to
reach Holland by the ordinary schedule trains, as he has
received reports of delays _en route_, owing to the fact
that all civil travellers are ejected from trains when troops
require accommodations. It is better to wait for special trains
arranged for by the Embassy.
"The Dresdener Bank and its branches throughout Germany will
cash _for Americans only_ letters of credit and checks
issued by good American banks in limited amounts. Included
in this category are the checks of the Bankers' Association,
Bankers' Trust Company, International Mercantile Marine Company,
and American Express Company. All checks and letters of credit
must, however, be stamped by American consuls, and consuls must
see that the consular stamp is affixed to those checks and
letters of credit only as are the bona fide property of American
citizens. The Commerz & Disconto Bank makes the same offer and
the Deutsche Bank will cash checks and letters of credit drawn
by its correspondents.
"American consular officers may also draw later on the Dresdener
Bank for their salaries and the official expenses of their
consulates. Before drawing such funds from the bank, however,
all consular officers should submit their expense accounts to me
for approval. These expense accounts should be transmitted to
the Embassy at the earliest opportunity.
"THE AMBASSADOR."
It will be noticed from the above circular that all Americans
were required to have their passports stamped at the Foreign
Office. One American did not receive back his passport, although
he had left it at the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office claimed
that it had delivered the passport to some one from the Embassy,
but we were not very much surprised when this identical passport
turned up later in the possession of Lodi, the confessed German
spy, who was shot in the Tower of London.
After a time the American Government cabled me to advance money
to destitute Americans; and the ladies in the ballroom, with
their assistants, attended to this branch, advancing money where
needed or so much as a person needed to make up the balance of
passage on steerage tickets from Holland to the United States.
At the same time we gradually built up a banking system. Those
in the United States who had friends or relatives in Germany
sent them money by giving the money to our State Department,
and the State Department in turn cabled me to make a payment.
This payment was made by my drawing a draft for the amount stated
on the State Department, the recipient selling this draft at a
fixed rate to the Deutsche Bank in Berlin. This business assumed
great proportions, and after the Americans who were in a hurry to
go home had disappeared, the ones remaining were kept in funds
by their friends and relatives through this sort of bank under
our management.
On August twenty-third, Assistant Secretary of War Breckenridge,
who had come from America on the warship _Tennessee_, bringing
gold with him, and a certain number of army officers, arrived
in Berlin and took over our relief organisation in so far as it
applied to the repatriation of Americans, housing it in rooms
hired in a nearby hotel, the Kaiserhoff. This commission: was
composed of Majors J. A. Ryan, J. H. Ford and G. W. Martin and
Captains Miller and Fenton, but the relief committee and the
banking office were still continued in the Embassy ballroom.
A bulletin was published under the auspices of the American
Association of Commerce and Trade and the advice there given was
that all Americans having the means to leave should do so when
the opportunity for leaving by special trains was presented, and
proceed direct to London whence they could obtain transportation
to the United States. All Americans without means were directed
to apply to the relief commission which was authorized to pay
for the transportation and subsistence of stranded Americans
in order to enable them to return home.
The enormous quantity of baggage left behind by Americans in
Germany was a problem requiring solution.
In spite of repeated advice to leave, many Americans insisted
on remaining in Germany. Few of them were business people; there
were many song-birds, piano players, and students. We had much
trouble with these belated Americans. For example, one woman
and her daughter refused to leave when advised, but stayed on
and ran up bills for over ten thousand marks; and as arrest for
debt exists in Germany, they could not leave when they finally
decided to go. All of us in the Embassy had to subscribe the
money necessary to pay their most pressing debts and they finally
left the country, leaving an added prejudice against Americans.