GERMANY'S PLAN TO SPANK AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 31 October 1917, Page 3

GERMANY'S PLAN TO SPANK AMERICA.

"My first winter was not all cakes and ale," writes Mr. Gerard, the American Ambassador, in the Daily Telegraph. "There were several interesting bits ■of diplomatic work. First, we were thou engaged in our conflict with Huerta, the dictator of Mexico, and it wus part of my work to secure from Germany promises that she would not recognise this Mexican President, "I also spent a great deal of time in endeavoring to get the German Government to take part officially in the San Francisco fair, but, as far as I could make out, England—probably at the instance of Germany—seemed to have entered into some sort of agreement, or at any rate a tacit understanding, that neither country would participate officially in this exposition. "But I believe that the attitude of Germany had a deeper significance, and that certain, at least, of the German statesmen had contemplated a rapprochement with England and a mutual spanking of America and its Monroe Doctrine by these two Great Powers. I WAS INFORMED. "Later I was informed by a man high in the German Foreign Office that Germany had proposed to England a joint intervention in Mexico, an invasion which would have put an end for ever to the Monroe Doctrine, of course to be followed by the forceful colonisation of Central and South America by European Powers. I was told that England refused. But whether this proposition and refusal in fact were made can be learned from the archives of the British Foreign Office. "During this period of trouble with Mexico the German Press, almost without exception, and especially that part of it controlled by the Government and by tne Conservative? or Junkers, was most bitter in its attitude towards America. The reason for this was the underlying hatred of an autocracy for a successful democracy, envy of the wealth, liberty, and commercial success of Ain*flca, and a deep and strong resentment against the Monroe Doctrine, which prevented Germany from using her powerful fleet and great military force to seize a foothold in the Western Hemisphere." The State Department announces that the United States has evidence that Germany intended to make war on the United States after defeating Fiance and England.