We have received from a correspondent at the front another
of the little " Trench Books " written to keep up the spirits of the German soldier. This pamphlet, which has been pieroed by a bullet, is an essay on America and the U-boat War by Karl Boy-Ed, the notorious spy-in-chief who was expelled from America for his criminal practices. Boy-Ed, who knew America well, demonstrated to his own satisfaction last March that America as a belligerent had been and would be a hindrance rather than a help to the Allies. He gave facts and figures to show that America would find it very difficult to transport half-a-million men to Europe and main_ tain them here. Oddly enough, he did not consider the possibility that we might lend the Americans many transports, as we did in the spring. He underestimated the American shipbuilders' energy and determination to achieve miracles, despite a scarcity of skilled labour, 'steel, and coal ; if we did not know that the event had proved him wrong, we should say that he had made out a very plausible case. It looks as if such mathematical arguments based on the size of the Allied merchant 'fleets and the assumed capacity of the shipyards had deluded Boy-Ed's superiors as well as the gullible German publio. They are now undeceived.
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