THE ARCHIBALD PAPERS.
his American passport. In a Memorandum handed to the American Govern- ment on June 12th, Count Bernstorff, the German Ambassador at Washington, laments the credulity which enables Americans to believe that there was really any truth in the newspaper charge that the German Govern- ment had intrigued to buy arms and ammunition plants in America. So far from there being a plot by Germany, Count Bernstorff explains, there was obviously a plot by friends of the Entente to embroil the relations of Germany and the United States. The statements that Germany was buying war material and plants in America were " utterly without foundation." At the same time—con- vulsive shift of ground by the Ambassador at this 1)0410—Germany would only be serving the cause of right and humanity in buying war material, and thus putting it beyond the power of the Entente to use this material for taking human life. If Germany did buy such material, she could, of course, sell it to the United States Government. She would be delighted to oblige if the United States Government wanted. any. We are grateful for the tribute to the British Navy contained in the assumption that the purchased war material could not reach Germany during the war, but would only be neutralized by being kept in the United States. Unfortu- nately, some papers carried by Dr. Albert, of the German Embassy, were stolen, and were published, as we all remember, in the New York World. These showed that the German Embassy had been doing exactly what Count Bernstorff said it had not been doing. Thereupon Count Bernstorff wrote again to the American Government. "It is inevitable," he says, "that I should receive from every conceivable source the most unbalanced and irresponsible offers... . The majority of the docu- ments stolen from Dr. Albert were of this kind." Certainly the schemes to foment strikes in American workshops which Dr. Albert carried about betrayed a curious sense of what foreign diplomatists owe to the country to which they are accredited. It was a blunder on Dr. Albert's part to carry them in his portfolio on the 'Elevated Railway. The happy thought of wearing an expression of engaging frankness presented itself to Count Bernstorff at this point, and he wrote " Our only mistake was that we preserved them [the schemes which he attributed to irresponsible outsiders] instead of throwing them into the waste-paper basket." We think of Mr. F. Austey's delightful lines about the gentleman who was found stealing things at the stores :- " He was slightly addicted to absence of mind,
Which might have accounted for that [i.e., some trifling object which he had stolen], But not for the jar of preserved caviare And the collared brawn in his hat."
The caviare and collared brawn in Dr. Albert's portfolio wore at all events too much for the American public, and they refused to let them be explained away. Besides, as we shall presently see, the implication of the German Embassy in the schemes for bringing about industrial anarchy was definitely proved by the documents taken from Mr. Archibald. The German Military Attaché was up to his eyes in the schemes. Count Bernstorff's documents were entrusted to Mr. Archibald in order that the Berlin Foreign Office might see the text of its faithful servant's diplomatic craft. lu confiding the papers to Mr. Archibald, Count Bernstorff thanks him, for having "promoted. our interests out here in such a zealous and successful manner." Count Bernstorff's skill saved. him from saying anything more compromising. But the German Military Attaché, Captain von Papen, and Dr. Dumba, the Austrian Ambassador at Washington, were not restrained by any such native tact. Here is Captain von Papen to the Chief of the German General Staff : " No encouraging news from India or Australia. " ! But the masterpiece of self-incrimination comes from Dr. Dumba :— " Yesterday evening Consul-General von Nuber received the enclosed aide-mt'moire from the chief editor of the local influential paper Szabadsdg, after a previous conversation with me, and in pur- suance of his verbal proposals to arrange for strikes in Bethlehem (Schwabe) steel and munitions factory, and also in the Middle West. Mr. Archibald, who is well known to your Excellency, leaves to-day at twelve o'clock on board the Rotterdam' for Berlin and Vienna. I take this rare and safe opportunity of warmly recommending the proposals to your Excellency's favour- able consideration. It is my impression that we can disorganize and hold up for months, if not entirely prevent, the manufacture of munitions in Bethlehem and the Middle West, which, in the opinion of the German Military Attach6, is of groat importance, and amply outweighs the comparatively small expenditure of money involved. But even if the strikes do not come off, it is probable that we should extort, under pressure of circumstances [enter dent Drucke der Conjunctur], more favourable conditions of labour for our poor, down-trodden fellow-countrymen. In Bethlehem these white slaves are now working for twelve hours a day and seven days a week ! All weak persons succumb and become consumptive."
One hardly knows whether to wonder more at the discovery that Dr. Dumba thinks it part of an Ambassador's busi- ness to reform labour conditions in a foreign country, or at the undesigned revelation. of the untruth of all that Count Berustorff had written to the American Government. The strikes are to be fomented with the sanction of the German Military Attache—that is to say, an official of the German Embassy I Count Bernstorff will perhaps try to add Captain von Papen's opinion to the category of the literature of unbalanced persons carried. by German messengers on the Elevated Railway. Dr. Duniba's schemes for fomenting the strikes make delightful-reading. News- papers are to be subsidized by German and Austrian money, but only half a subsidy should be paid at a time —cautious man ! There should. be a Labour novel run- ning as a serial on the model of Mr. Upton Sinclair's stories. " Soap-box " orators should be paid to stir up discontent. Aud picnics would be found a useful social means of spreading industrial revolution. Jim Pinkerton's liebdomadary picnics, as described in Stevenson's The Wrecker, would have afforded an admirable model. In another despatch Dr. Dumba acknowledges the hopeless- ness of trying to bring about an embargo on the export of munitions :- " I am of opinion that the return to the question, whether officially by a reply from your Excellency, or by a semi-official conversation between myself and the Secretary of State, is not only useless, but even, having regard to the somewhat self-willed temperament of the President, harmful. In this matter I agree entirely with the view expressed by Consul Schwegel in the report attached. The President has broken all the bridges behind him, and has made his point of view so definite that it is impossible for him to retreat from this position."
We wish there were more from Captain von Papen. He is always amusing. Ile wrote to his wife after the New York World exposures :- " We have great need of being bucked np here. . . . They stole a fat portfolio from our good Albert in the Elevated (English Secret Service, of course 7) Unfortunately there were some very important things from my report among them, such as the buying up of liquid chlorine and about the Bridgeport Projectile Company, as well as documents regarding the buying up of phenol (from which explosives are made), and the acquisition of the Wrights' aeroplane patent. But things like that must occur. I send you Albert's reply for you to see how we protect ourselves. We composed the document together yesterday. It seems quite likely that we shall meet again soon. The sinking of the `Adriatic ' [sic] may well be the last straw. . . . How splendid on the eastern front. I always say to these idiotic Yankees they had better hold their tongues."
We gratefully accept the tribute to the English Secret Service, but is it entirely deserved Did the Secret Service really make money by selling the documents as well as bringing off the coup? That seems almost beyond our British compass. Still, when any one is inclined in future to praise German organization at the expense of British organization, it will be comforting for him to remember what the Germans believe about their "good Albert" and the Elevated Railway.
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