STUPID GERMAN PLOTTERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 288, 29 June 1917, Page 4 (Supplement)

STUPID GERMAN PLOTTERS.

Before the war on; lizard constantly of German plots and intrigues, but one accepted such stories with the proverbial grain of salt. Since August. 1914, the German has actually reveal 3d himself as a tireless intriguer; hut because his persistence in this respect seems to be equalled by his stupidity, the Allies are learning to regard these activities of his v.ith some contempt — although they take all necessary precautions in respect thereto. The future historian, looking back on these fateful years, may conclude that Germany lost more than she gained by her excursions into the realms of "diplomatic finesse." Would the United States, for instance, have gone beyond the limits of armed neutrality had public opinion not bean profoundly influenced by clumsy German plotter? ? Up to February 28, a powerful body of Americans was sharply opposed to actual intervention. On March 1, the United States Government published the despatch from the German Foreign Office to the German Minister in Mexico, suggesting that in the event of the United States entering the war, Mexico should join Germany and endeavour to secure a rapprochement v'th Japan and a separate per.ee beta'en Germany and Japan. In a mrmant the whole situation was changed • the United States' decision to join the Allies, was taken with a unanimity that no observer had ever dreamed to be possible. It is in-. teresting to note, by the way, that this famous despatch was taken by a non-commissioned officer and three privates from one of Count Bernstorff's messengers, who was trying to sneak across the Rio Grande into Mexico. It may well be that, the tiny patrol, in catching and t-ea.rching this humble instrument of Teuton plotters, has chamged the course of world events. Already the money, ships, food, and men of America have altered the whole aspect i;f the war. Yet the German continues his fatuous schemes. We hear of busy futive propagandists in Switzerland, of a "Baron" arrested in Chicago for plotting against India, of an attempt to buy a Venezuelan island that is a direct attack on the Monroe Doctrine; but such things scarcely arouse interest. The German Machiivelli has t> be watched carefully, but he is hardly taken as seriously as he takes himself.