It was a disappointed von Papen whom I met on my return to New York a rather crestfallen person, far different from the urbane soldier that Washington knew in those days. We commiserated with each other upon our failure, and talked of the better luck that we should have next time. I did not know that there was to be no next time for me.
For it came about that Abteilung III. B., the Intelligence Department of the General Staff, wished some first-hand information about conditions in the United States and in Mexico; and I, who knew both countries (and who was the possessor of an American passport bearing an American name), was selected to go.
On October 3, 1914, Bridgeman Taylor waved farewell to New York from the deck of an Italian steamer, bound for Genoa. The curious might have been interested to know that in Mr. Taylor's trunk were letters of recommendation to various German Consuls in Italy; strangely enough, they bore the name of Horst von der Goltz within them, and the signature of each was "von Papen."
I had said good-bye to von Papen the night before at the German Club. He had asked me to hand over to him all the firearms I had, for use again when needed.
We talked of the war that night, and of Germany, which I had not seen in two years. And we spoke of the United States, and of what I was to tell them "over there."
"Say that they need not worry about this country," he told me. "The United States may still join us in the splendid fight we are making. But if they do not it is of small moment. And always remember that if things look bad for us, something will happen over here."
I left him, speculating upon the "something" that would happen; for then I did not know of all the plans that were in my captain's head. I .was to learn more about them later and I was to know a bitter disgust at the things that men may do in the name of patriotism. But of these matters I will speak in their proper place.
CHAPTER VIII
MY INTERVIEW WITH THE KAISER
I go to Germany on a false passport -- Italy in the early days of the war -- I meet the Kaiser and talk to him about Mexico and the United States.
IT was peaceful sailing in those early days of the war, and our ship, the Duca d'Aosta, reached Genoa without mishap. I had but one moment of trepidation on the voyage, for on the last day the ship was hailed by a British cruiser. Here, I thought, was where I should put my passport to the test but, as it happened, our ship was not searched. An officer came alongside inquiring, among other things, if there were any Germans on board, but he accepted the captain's assurance that there was none to my intense relief.
Genoa, like all the rest of the world, was in a state of great excitement in those days. Rumours as to the possible course of the Italian Government were flying about everywhere, and one could hear in an hour as many conflicting statements of the Government's intentions as he might wish. The country was a battlefield of the propagandists at the moment. Nearly all of the German Consuls, who had been forced to leave Africa at the declaration of war, had taken up their quarters in Italy, and were busily disseminating pro-German literature of all sorts. I was told, too, that the French Ambassador had already spent large sums of money buying Italian papers in which to present the Allied cause to the as yet neutral people of Italy. And when I went into the office of the Imperial German Consul-General, von Nerf, I was amused to see a huge pile of copies of of all papers in the world! the Berlin Vorwaerts, which had been imported for distribution throughout the country. Here was a pretty comedy! This newspaper, which during its entire existence had been the bitterest foe of German autocracy in the Empire, had become a propagandist sheet for its former enemy and was now being used as a lure for the hesitating sympathies of the Italian people! In German, French and Italian editions it was spread about the country, carrying the message of Teutonic righteousness to the uninformed.
I found von Nerf to be a large man, with whiskers that recalled those of Tirpitz, although without that gentleman's temperament or embonpoint. He assured me that Italy would never enter the war; there were too many factions in the country which would oppose such a step.
"Why, consider," he bade me, "we have the three most important parties on our side. The Catholics will never consent to a break with Germany; the business men are all our stanch partisans; and the Labour Party is too violently opposed to war ever to consider entering it. Besides," he continued, "labouring men all over the world know that it is in Germany that the Labour Party has reached its greatest strength. Why, then, should they consider taking sides against us?"
"But do you think that there is any chance of Italy entering the war on our side?" I asked him.
Von Nerf shrugged his shoulders. "It is doubtful," was his reply. "What could they do in their situation?"
I had come to von Nerf with von Papen's letter of introduction, to ask for assistance in reaching Germany. Accordingly he arranged for my passage, and soon I was on a train bound for Milan and Kuf stein, where I was to change for the train to Munich. At that time the German Consuls were paying the passage of thousands of Germans who wished to leave Italy for service in the army. The train on which I travelled was full of these volunteers, who later disembarked at Kufstein, on the Austro-German border, to report to the military authorities there.
At Munich we passed some wounded who were being taken from the front the first real glimpse of the war that I had had. There was little evidence of any war feeling in the Bavarian capital; restaurants were crowded, and everyone was light-hearted and confident of victory. I saw few signs of any hatred there, or elsewhere during my stay in Germany. All that there was was directed against England; France was universally respected, and I heard only expressions of regret that she was in the war.
On the train from Munich to Berlin I had the first good meal I had eaten in several weeks. It was good to sit down to something besides miles of spaghetti and indigestible anchovies. And the price was only two marks for that was long before the days of the Food Controller and $45 ham.
Berlin was filled with Austrian officers, some of them belonging to motor batteries the famous '32's which had been built before the war in the Krupp factories, not for Germany for that would have occasioned additional armaments on the part of France but by Austria, who could increase her strength without suspicion. The city, always martial in appearance, had changed less than one would have expected. There, too, the restaurants were filled; in particular the Piccadilly, which had been rechristened the Fatherland, and was enjoying an exceptional popularity in consequence. One was wise to go early if he wished to secure a table there; and that fortunate person could see the dining-room filled with happy crowds, eating and drinking, and applauding vociferously when "Die Wacht am Rhein "or some other patriotic air was played. I had returned to Germany for two purposes: to fight, and to bring full details of conditions in Mexico and the United States to the War Office. One of my first official visits was paid to the Foreign Office, where I found everyone busy with routine matters and very little concerned about the success or failure of the German propaganda in Italy an attitude in marked contrast to that of the General Staff. There the first question asked of me related to conditions in Italy. This indifference of the Foreign Office would seem, in the light of after events, to indicate a false security on the Ministry's part; but in reality the facts are otherwise. Germany had never expected Italy to enter the war on the side of the Central Powers; she did hope that her former ally would remain neutral, and at that time was doing her utmost to keep her so, both by propaganda and by assuring her of a supply of coal and other commodities, for which Italy had formerly depended upon England, and which Germany now hoped to secure for her from America. But even at the time of my visit the indications of Italy's future course were fairly clear and the Foreign Office was accepting its failure with as good grace as it could.
But if the Foreign Office were indifferent to the attitude of Italy, it was intensely interested in that of Turkey, which had not yet entered the war. It seemed to me as if Mannesmann and Company, a house whose interests in the Orient are probably more extensive than those of any other German company, seemed almost to have taken possession of the Colonial Office, so many of its employees were in evidence there; and I had an extended conference with Bergswerkdirektor Steinmann, who had formerly been in charge of the Asia Minor interests of this company. Mexico, of course, was the principal topic of our conversation, but many times he spoke of Turkey and of the small doubt that existed as to her future course of action.
Next door to the Foreign Office, every corner of which was a-hum with busy clerks and officials, stood the house to which I had been taken from Gross Lichterfelde so many years before "Samuel Meyer's Bude." It was very quiet and empty to outward appearance; and yet from within that silent, deserted house, I think it safe to say, the destiny of Europe was being directed. It was there that the Kaiser spent his days when he was in Berlin. And it was there that the Imperial Chancellor had his office and determined more than any man, except the Kaiser, the policies of the Empire.
One entered the house, going directly into a large room that was occupied no longer by the round-faced man of my cadet days, but by Assessor Horstman, the head of the Intelligence Department of the Foreign Office. Upstairs was the private office of the Emperor, and, to the rear of that, the Nachrichten Bureau a newspaper propaganda and intelligence office, directed by the Kaiser and under the charge of Legation-Secretary Weber.
I visited the Turkish Legation, at the suggestion of Herr Steinmann, and discussed at length and very seriously with the Ambassador the attitude of Italy and its effect upon Turkey's possible entry into the war. He assured me that the only thing necessary to make Turkey take part in the conflict was a guarantee that Germany jvas capable of handling the Italian situation, and that whatever Italy might do would not affect Turkish interests.
But it was with the General Staff that my chief business was. At the outbreak of hostilities this the "War Office "so-called had become two organisations. One, devoted to the actual supervision of the forces in the field, had its headquarters in Charleville, France, far behind the battle front; the other branch remained in the dingy old building on the Koenig's Platz, in which it had always been quartered. It is here that the army department of "Intelligence," officially known as Abteilung III. B, is located, and it was to this department that I had been assigned.