WHAT BERNHARDI SAID

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2412, 18 March 1915, Page 6

WHAT BERNHARDI SAID

4 HIS VISIT TO AMERICA IN 1913 One of the interesting incidents of a recent visit to the United States, writes a correspondent of the "Manchester Guardian," was that I came across traces of General BernhaTdi's visit in tho summer of 1913. He camo by way of the Pacific, crossed America from San Francisco, visiting the centres where German-Americans arc mostly to bo found, and left from Now York. Immediately on arrival he would visit the German Consulate. Invitations were then sent out on the official paper of tho Consul to a number of selected guests. In Sari Francisco about three hundred were invited, who were all Germans but two, one of whom I had the good fortune to meet. The meetings were official, but private, and. .there were no reporters. Tho General then read a speech which was evidently carefully prepared. What Bernhardi Taught In America. Bernhardi's purpose appeared to be to neutralise the American policy of goodwill and friendship among the nar tionalities-represented in the composite American citizenship, .and to counteract the movement for international and world-wide peace which is very popular in America. He told the GermanAmericans that a great European war could' not be far distant. It was both inevitable and near. -They must be ready for it wheri it came, and remember that they were still Germans first of all. His references to the planned march through Belgium and the taking of Paris were unmistakable. He did not mince matters. Questions of morals, of international treaties, of international rights he brushed aside. Law:, he said, is a makeshift. The reality is force. Law is for weaklings. Force is for strong men and strong nations. The most important and to many the most unexpected part of his address was the_ declaration that not France but Britain stood in Germany's way, and must be reached before Germany laid down its arms. Bernhardi's address was, if anything, a little more brutally frank than his book. It covered the historical, psychological, and biological arguments for; war, and showed that to Prussia especially war had been the_ pillar of its power and the source of its greatness. The General is described as tall, spare, very erect, his beard streaked with- grey, his head very straight on the back; as not aggressive in manner, bijfc rather scientific and prosy, a typical heel-clicking Prussian officer of 65. He spoke entirely in German. Segregating German Opinion. His visit was part of a campaign which has now gone on for fifteen years for separating German opinion in the United States from American opinion. The originator of the campaign was Professor Karl Lamprecht; of Leipzig. It. has been' maintained by subsidised newspapers, by lecturers and speakers visiting America from Germany, and by efforts to get German taught in tlie public schools. The visit of • Prince Henry of Prussia was part of the 6ame organised effort. In Southern Brazil the campaign took tlie form of an undisguised effort to organise the 200,000 Gorman settlers into a German principality. It, is ' quite possible that but for the war something might have been effected. It was so secret, so plausible, and so well directed that .tlie hyphenated Americans were acquiring not only tho influence' but control in large cities, and were ready to shape the policy of the Government in European affairs. When tho league for tho celebration of a hundred years' peace with England was formed the Germane formed an alliance with the Irish to counteract its propaganda. They did not succeed entirely in suppressing the celebration, but they represented that the public meetings would be so hurtful to their sensitive feelings that when Decemher came tlis celebrations took place almost in private. Interest in Ulster. To complete the record of the General's attentions to our welfare, it may be added that I haTe seen. a. letter written by an English lady in Switzerland in the autumn of 1913, in which she describes how General Bernhardi sat beside her at table and continually probed her with questions about England—more particularly about the affairs of Ulster and tho Government's handling of the Suffragettes. He was specially keen to know whether Ulster would roally fight, and what the strength of its forces would be. He had evidently formed the impression that the Government was weak and could be squeezed by proper pressure.