GERMAN TREACHERY.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 156, 17 March 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

GERMAN TREACHERY.

WHAT AMERICA KNOWS. If anyone has any doubts as to the manner in which Germany, for many years past, lias been preparing for the war which she has forced upon the world, they cannot do better than read tho "Life and Letters of John Hay" (Constable), a man who, from coin parat'vely humble origin, rose to be American Ambassador in London fr-.ii 1806-8. Queen Victoria referred 10 him as "the most interesting of all Ambassadors 1 have known."

Writing in I'JOO, Mr. Hay said, in a letter: "1 would sooner be the dupe of China than the ciiuin of the Kaiser.'' It had occurred to Berlin that there were many ways of colonizing a country. "The I'nitcd States held the largest number of emigrants from Germany. They had come here to escape military service at home, or to breakthrough the rigid lines of caste, or simply to better their fortunes; and they had thriven here. Under the pretence of promoting political and commercial friendship, the German Government began secretly to organize the GermanAmericans. Agents of all kinds were sent out from Germany, and the Ger-man-Americans. who bad been looked at rather as absconders by the Imperial Government, were now flattered, courted. and encouraged in all ways to renew their intimacy with the Fatherland ami to regard that as their real home.

"The time came when those among tliem who had achieved wealth or eminence visited Germany. They were effusively welcomed. The Emperor condescended to receive tlieni, and permitted even German Jews to penetrate to the antechambers of the Court. He distributed decorations lavishly. Towards native Americans, also, he showed great affability. His paid pamphleteers discovered that, in essence, the Prussians and the Yankees were singularly alike. No form of seduction which occurred to the Prussian imagination was left untried. . .

Accordingly, th 0 United States were permeated with spies, advocates, and surreptitious promoters of the glory of the Hohenzollern dynasty. Mr. Hay was always suspicious of German treachery. H<> probably heard from Mr. Chamberlain himself the j-emark winch the Kaiser made to an Englishman. who reported it to Mr. Chamberlain: "If I had bad a larger Fleet 1 would have taken Uncle Sam by the s ruff of the neck."

This was shortly after the SpanishAmerican War, and while. ;is Mr. Hay says, the American relations with Germany were perfectly "civil and courteous." They recognised that the Germans could not help bullying and swaggering—it was their nature.