ciers. I knew Secretaries of State Von Jagow and Zimmermann; General von Kluck, who drove the German first army against Paris in August, 1914; General von Falkenhayn, former Chief of the General Staff; Philip Scheidemann, leader of the Reichstag Socialists; Count Stefan Tisza, Minister President of Hungary and Count Albert Apponyi. While my headquarters were in Berlin, I made frequent journeys to the front in Belgium, France, Poland, Russia and Roumania. Ten times I was on the battlefields during important military engagements. Verdun, the Somme battlefield, General Brusiloff's offensive against Austria and the invasion of Roumania, I saw almost as well as a soldier. After the sinking of the Lusitania and the beginning of critical relations with the United States I was in constant touch with James W. Gerard, the American Ambassador, and the Foreign Office. I followed closely the effects of American political intervention until February 10th, 1917. Frequent visits to Holland and Denmark gave me the impressions of these countries regarding President Wilson and the United States. En route to Washington with Ambassador Gerard, I met in Berne, Paris and Madrid, officials and people who interpreted the affairs in these countries. So, from the beginning of the war until today, I have been at the strategic points as our relations with Germany developed and came to a climax. 區 At the beginning of the war I was sympathetic with Germany, but my sympathy changed to disgust as I watched developments in Berlin change the German people from world citizens to narrowminded, deceitful tools of a ruthless government. I saw Germany outlaw herself. I saw the effects of President Wilson's notes. I saw the antiAmerican propaganda begin. I saw the Germany of 1915 disappear. I saw the birth of lawless Germany. In this book I shall try to take the reader from Washington to Berlin and back again, to show the beginning and the end of our diplomatic relations with the German government. I believe that the United States by two years of patience and notewriting, has done more to accomplish the destruction of militarism and to encourage freedom of thought in Germany than the Allies did during nearly three years of fighting. The United States helped the German people think for themselves, but being children in international affairs, the people soon accepted the inspired thinking of the government. Instead of forcing their opinions upon the rulers until results were evident, they chose to follow with blind faith their military gods. The United States is now at war with Germany because the Imperial Government willed it. The United States is at war to aid the movement for democracy in Germany; to help the German people realize that they must think for themselves. The seeds of democratic thought which Wilson's notes sowed in Germany are growing. If the Imperial Government had not frightened the people into a belief that too much thinking would be dangerous for the Fatherland, the United States would not today be at war with the Kaiser's government. Only one thing now will make the people realize that they must think for themselves if they wish to exist as a nation and as a race. That is a military defeat, a defeat on the battlefields of the Kaiser, von Hindenburg and the Rhine Valley ammunition interests. Only a decisive defeat will shake the public confidence in the nation's leaders. Only a destroyed German army leadership will make the people overthrow the group of men who do Germany's political thinking to-day. New York, May, 1917. C. W. A. PREFACE TO THE THIRD PRINTING 'As this book goes to press again the world and the Allies face the greatest crisis since the invasion of Belgium. Germany and Austria are fighting far in Italian territory. Russia is eliminated as a military factor as far as the Allies are concerned. During the past seven months the United States has astonished its bitterest critics by its marvelous preparations but-Germany is still undefeated. It is true that the submarine war did not succeed in defeating England as Germany calculated but it has succeeded to the extent that Italy has been deprived of necessary shipping. The military situation today is serious, so serious that the United States for the first time is represented in an Allied War Conference in Paris. The new situation in Europe affects the statements and conclusions in my book to the extent that the more victories there are for the German Military Dictators the longer a Liberal government in Berlin is postponed. But, if the Allies can hold out during the present crisis Germany |