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 every one 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 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 could be mustered to the occasion. But if the Foreign Office was 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. [Illustration: Captain Tauscher’s order upon the du Pont de Nemours Powder Company for explosives to be delivered to “Bridgeman Taylor” and a bill for “merchandise” charged to Captain von Papen. The third item on Tauscher’s bill corresponds with the amount of the two bills shown in the preceding illustrations. The four photographs indicate how von der Goltz secured ammunition for the Welland Canal Enterprise.] 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 Mayer’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.