The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915Various
History
The New York Times Current History: the European War, February, 1915
Various
World War, 1914-1918
Today I again dropped in on the Great General Staff and found it not
only at home, but very much interested on discovering that I had no pass
to come or go or be there at that time. The wartime mind of Prussian
militarism is keen and right to the point. It saw not the chance of
getting publicity in America, but the certainty that other more
dangerous spies could come through the same way. By all the rules of the
war game, Prussian militarism would have been thoroughly justified in
treating me as a common spy in possession of vital military secrets, but
it courteously contented itself in insisting on plucking out the heart
of the journalistic mystery. All attempts at evasion and humor were
vain--here was the ruthless reality of war. It was the mailed Prussian
eagle against the bluff American bird of the same species, and the
unequal contest was soon ended when Major Nikolai, Chief of Division
III. of the Great General Staff, stood up very straight and dignified
and said: "I am a German officer. What German violated his duty? I ask
you as a man of honor, how was it possible for you to come here?"
The answer was quite simple: "The German military machine was so perfect
that it covered every contingency except the most obvious and guarded
every road except the easiest way. All you have to do is to take a
passenger train to Luxemburg, and hang around the platform until the
next military train pulls out for Belgium or France, hop aboard, and
keep on going. In case of doubt utter the magic phrase, 'I am an
American,' and flash the open sesame, the red seal of the United States
of America--to which bearded Landsturm guards pay the tribute of
regarding it as equally authoritative as the purple Prussian eagle
stamped on a military pass."
Followed a two-hour dialogue in the private office of the chief of the
Kaiser's secret field police, as a result of which future historians
will find in the Kaiser's secret archives the following unique document,
couched in Berlin "detectivese" and signed and subscribed to by THE
TIMES correspondent:
Secret Field Police, Great Headquarters, Dec. 1, 1914.
There appears the American war correspondent, and at the
particular request of the authorities, explains:
On Saturday, Nov. 30, I arrived at Trier on a second-class
ticket at about 10:30 P.M. There I bought a third-class ticket
and boarded a train leaving about 11:10 P.M. and reached
Luxemburg at about 12:15 A.M. I did not go into the railroad
station, but, trusting to my papers, boarded a military train
leaving at 12:45 A.M., going over Longwy to Longuyon, where I
arrived at 3:30 A.M., Sunday. There an official whose name I
do not know took me to a troop train and made a place for me
in the brake box. I left the train at X and went on foot to H
(the Great Headquarters,) where I reported myself to the Chief
of Police.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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