The Assault: Germany Before the Outbreak and England in War-TimeWile, Frederic William
History
The Assault: Germany Before the Outbreak and England in War-Time
Wile, Frederic William
World War, 1914-1918
For myself it had been a week crowded with great recollections. Special
correspondents telegraphing to influential foreign newspapers,
particularly if they were English and American newspapers, were always
_persona gratissima_ with German dignitaries, even of the blood royal.
The group of us on duty at what, alas! was to be the last Kiel Week, at
least of the old sort, for many a year, were the recipients, as usual,
of that scientific hospitality which foreign newspapermen always receive
at German official hands. Before we were at Kiel twenty-four hours we
were deluged with invitations to garden-parties at the Commanding
Admiral’s, to _soirees_ innumerable ashore and afloat, to luncheons at
the Town Hall, to the grand balls at the Naval Academy, and to functions
of lesser magnitude for the bluejackets. Grand-Admiral von Tirpitz had
left his card at my lodgings and so had Admiral von Rebeur-Paschwitz,
the Chief of Staff of the Baltic Station, who will be pleasantly
remembered by friends of Washington days when he was German Naval
Attaché there. Captain Lohlein, the courteous chief of the Press Bureau
of the Navy Department at Berlin, had equipped me with credentials which
practically made me a freeman of Kiel harbor for the time being. In no
single direction was effort lacking, on the part of the authorities who
have the most practical conception of any Government in the world of the
value of advertising, to enable special correspondents at Kiel to
practise their profession comfortably and successfully. I must not
forget to mention the visit paid me by Baron von Stumm, chief of the
Anglo-American division of the German Foreign Office; for Stumm’s
opinion of me underwent a kaleidoscopic and mysterious change a few
weeks later. Treasured conspicuously in my memories of Kiel, too, will
long remain the call I received from Herr Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach’s
private secretary, and the message he brought me from the Master of
Essen. It seems less cryptic to me now than then. I sought an
interview from the Cannon Queen’s consort about the visit he and his
staff of experts had just paid to the great arsenals and dockyards of
Great Britain.
"Herr Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach presents his compliments," said the
secretary, "and asks me to say how much he regrets he can not grant an
interview, as the matters which took him to England are not such as he
cares to discuss in public."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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