Germany, The Next Republic?

tered and that ships would be warned before they were torpedoed. But when the Navy heard that the Foreign Office was inclined to listen to Mr. Wilson's protests it made no attempt

ld announce to the people the more lustful the General Staff would be for a war of exhaustion. Army leaders have always had more confidence in their ability to defeat the world than the Foreign Office. The army looked at the map of Europe and saw so many hundred thousand square miles of territory under occupation. The Foreign Office saw Germany in its relation to the world. Von Jagow knew that every new square mile of territory gained was being paid for, not only by the cost of German blood, but by the more terrible cost of publ

risis was not between President Wilson and Berlin but between Admiral von Tirpitz and Secretary von Jagow and their followers. President Wilson was at the limit of his patience with Germany and the German people, who

ause of the popular feeling that America has already hindered so many of Germany's plans." At that time it appeared to observers in Berlin that unless President Wilson could show

any refuses to disavow on the ground that the murderous act was the act of the German Government. Yet, after all this time, the Lusitania case is still unsettled. The administration has, with marvellous self-restraint, recognised that public opinion in Germany was not normal, and for that reason it has done everything in its power to smoo

ple, Germany announced the policy that we had condemned as illegal, and that plainly is illegal. The trouble in Berlin is an utter inability to see anything wrong in the attack on the Lusitania, or to appreciate the sense of horror that was stirred in this country

Germany that has shown a 'patient attitude,' the implication or insinuation being that our long suffering administration has been unreasonable and impatient. That will not be the verdict of history, as it is not the verdict of our own people. We have made every allowance for the conditions exis

ed it the next day with the brief comment on

n was not only not bluffing, but that the American people would support him in whatever he did in dealing with the German Government. Mr. Gerard tried too to impress the Foreign Office but because he could only deal with that branch of th

d for days and weeks to impress officials with the seriousness of the situation. At the critical point in the negotiations various unofficial diplomats began to arrive and they seriously interfered with negotiations. One of these was a politician who through his credentials from Mr. Bryan met many

ote. Dumba telegraphed this to Vienna and Berlin was informed immediately. Because of Mr. Gerard's personal friendship and personal association with Secretary of State von Jag

methods. Although the submarines operating in the Mediterranean were flying the Austrian flag, they were German submarines, and members of the crews were German. Throughout the life of the Emperor Franz Josef the Dual Monarchy was ruled, not from Vienna, but from Budapest by Count Stefan Tisza, the

rican note. It is far from our intention to get into any quarrel with America. Perhaps I should not say quarrel, because I know it would not be that, but of course matters do not depend upon us entire

ry. While there is a strong Government press, which is loyal to the Tisza party, there is an equally powerful opposition press which follows the leadership of Count Albert Apponyi and Count Julius Andrassy, the two most popular men in Hungarian publi

he sinking and adjust the matter. But Berlin feared that if the _Ancona_ crime was accredited to the real murderers it would bring about another, and

n's notes were having upon Americans and upon the outside neutral world caused opposition to von Tirpitz to gain more force. In de

hancellor and the United States, the people would overthrow the Hohenzollern dynasty. But von Tirpitz had made a good many personal enemies especially among financiers and business men. So the Kaiser, instead of ousting the Chancellor, asked von Tirpitz to resign and appointed Admiral von Capelle, the Assistant Secretary of the Navy and a friend of the Chancellor, as von Tirpitz' successor. Admiral von Mueller, Chief of the Naval Cabinet, who was always at Great Headquarters as the Kaiser's personal adviser on naval affair

and the Government was dislodged, would the Government be able to make peace now breathed sighs of relief and began to make plans for the adjustment of all differences with the United States and for a peace without annexation. Von Tirpitz had had the

destined to last very long. While the Chancellor had cleaned house in the Navy Department at Berlin he had overlooked Kiel. There were admirals and officers in ch

ed and wounded. When the news reached Berlin, not only the Chancellor and the Foreign Office were shocked and horrified, but the American Embassy began to doubt whether the Chancellor really meant what he said when h

o had been doing everything possible to get some one to propose peace, decided to address the Reichstag again on Germany's peace aims. It was announced in the newspapers only a few days beforehand. The demand for tickets of admission was so

d financiers. Every one awaited the entrance of the Chancellor with great expectations. The National Liberals, who had been clamouring for the annexation of Belgium, the conservatives, who wanted a stronger war policy against Eng

a nervous, determined and defiant radical. He was dressed in the uniform of a common soldier. Although he had been at the front several months and in the firing line, he had not received the iron cross of the second class which practically every soldier who had seen service had been decorated with. His clothes

. When the Chancellor said: "We could have gotten what we wanted by peaceful work. Our enemies chose war." Liebknecht interjected in his sharp, shrill voice, "You chose

d, but the Chancellor continued: "Gentlemen, we want neighbours who will not again unite against us in order to strangle us, but such that we can work with them

een shed will never come back; the wealth which has been wasted will come back but only slowly. In any case, it must become, for all living in it, a Europe of peaceful labour.

private in the Socialists' rank was again on his feet,

ntion from the Sussex to the larger question of peace, but the world was not so inclined. On the 18th of April I asked Admiral von Holtzendor

exact orders each submarine commander has you would understand that the torpedoing of the Sussex was impossible. Many of our submarines have retu

ise in every way. We are not out to torpedo without warning neutral ships bound for England. Our submarines ha

sed a sensation because if Germany maintained the attitude which the Chief of the Admiralty Staff had taken with the approval of the Foreign Office, a break in diplomatic relations could not be avoided. Secretary Lansing telegraphed Ambassador Gerard to inquire at the Foreign Office whether the statements of von Holtzendorff represented the opinions of the German Government. Gerard called me to the Embassy but before I arrived Dr. Heckscher, of the Reichstag Foreign Relations Committee, came. Gerard called me in in Heckscher's presence to ask if I knew that the von Holtzendorff interview would bring about a break in diplomatic re

n the reports of Ambassador Gerard that there was a chance of the democratic forces in Germany coming

has hoped even against hope that it would prove to be possible for the Imperial Government so to order and control the acts of its naval commanders as to square its policy with the recognised principles of humanity as embodied in the law of nations. It has made every allowance for unprecedented conditions and has been willing to wait until the facts became unmistakable and were susceptible of only one interpretation. It now owes it to a just regard, for its own rights to say to the Imperial Government

ised dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue. Unless the Imperial Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight carrying

etween the Chancellor and his democratic supporters and von Falkenhayn and the military party. Before the Conference convened General Headquarters sent inquiries to five government departments, the Foreign Office, the Navy, the Ministry of War, the Treasury, and Interior. The Ministers at the head of these departments were asked to state whether in their opinion the controversy with America

eadquarters of the General Staff after the Germans invaded this section of France. Near the railroad station there was a public park. Facing it was a French chateau, a beautiful, comfortable home. This was the Kaiser's residence. All streets leading in this direction were barricaded and guarded by sentries. No one could pass without a special written permit from the Chief of the General Staff. Von Falkenhayn had his home

onial Minister, who had been a very good friend of Ambassador Gerard, discussed the question of the submarine warfare from the stand-point of its relation to Germany's position as a world power. Admiral von Capelle placed before the Kaiser the figures of the number of ships sunk,

Mr. Gerard was invited to go to Charleville. Before the ambassador arrived the Kaiser called all of his ministers together for a joint session and asked them to make a brief summary of their arguments. This was not a peace meeting. Not only opponents of submarine warfare but its advocates mobilised all their forces in a final attempt to win the Kaiser's approval. His

Our task is to win. If we win we will hav

n affairs I'll ask you to speak," interrup

epted the Imperial rebuke, but not long

rd, Secretary von Jagow on May 4th handed the Ambassador the German note in re

ve expression to the fact that it was not its fault if peace was further withheld from the peoples of Europe. With a correspondingly greater claim of justification, the German Government may proclaim its unwillingness before mankind and

the precepts of the general international fundamental principles be observed as regards stopping, searching and destruction of merchant vessels within th

a and Turkey. They had been fighting since August, 1914, for twenty-one months, and still their fighting had not shattered or weakened the hold which the military party had upon the people and the Kaiser. Von Tirpitz and von Falkenhayn, who, shortly after the war began, became the ringleaders of Germany's organised Might, had fallen not before the armed foes on the battlefield but before an unarmed nation with a president whose only weapon was public opinion. First, von Tirpitz fell because he was ready to defy the United States. Then came the downfall of von Falkenhayn, because he was prepared to damn the United States and all neutrals. Surely a nation and a government afte

and again decided to support the people who were clamouring for a ruthless, murderou