The Washington herald., 1917-02-13
The Plot Exposed.

methods it employs.
OF course the bubble breaks under
the chill wind of American common
sense; but another floats over, Berlin
blown, to give a second shock of
humor and amazement to Washing
ton. Carranza as plant German
tool has long been speculated upon;
Carranza as an active force in German
propaganda, suggesting no less than
an embargo on exports to the entente
nations for the neutrals OF the three
Americas, is pitiable but danger
Gus figure. Washington would laugh
and dismiss the suggestion from its
mind if it were not for one possible
development, which is this:
Under the unseen but potent goad
from Berlin, Carranza may try to
seize British oil holdings at Tampico
and prevent exports to Britain.
Petrol, as il is known, is an absolute
essential for the British grand feet,
whose new super-Dreadnaughts are
all oil-driven. Tampico furnishes the
main source OF supply.
Such insensate action by Carranza
would leave Great Britain only one
thing to do. She would sieze Tam
pico as soon as she could get feet
there; take her oil fields by force;
violate Mexican sovereignty in the
protection of her rights. The United
States could interpose no objection.
1t would recognize the force of the
emergency; recognize that the Mon
roe doctrine is not involved, that the
only question at issue is whether
German Vaccinations in Mexico are
to succeed.
If the latest Carranza note presages
such action by his shaky advisers,
it will require prompt action by the
State Department. There must be
no mincing of words, no assembling
of facts. The United States must
dissuade Carranza from falling into
lhC hdhuS VI plollSlSs II II NdiilOt,
he must bear the consequences. One
of these may be the withdrawal of
the recognition" which has rested
on his shoulders uneasily ever since
it was extended him.
The Mexican move furnishes a fine
FLIP to the peace suggestion so
facilely made by Berlin at time
when it merely emphasized the
essential chicanery of Teuton di-
pomacy. Diplomats of all degrees
and sizes wonder what the next off
shoot of the German official mind
will be. Will it "see the game
through" in Mexico, the while it tries
to wave courage to American pacifsts
who seem determined to embarrass
their government in an hour of grave
national peril?
Such policy represents the last
touch of desperation in the Wilhelm
strasse. 1t would be unbelievable IL
it had not already come to pass. Ger
man submarines may go to the
Caribbean to sink the British oil
tankers at Tampico.s 1t may fall to
the American navy to gain its first
experience with U-boats in these
waters. Anything may happen while
Germany is indulging in crack-brain-
ed projects in an effort to loosen the
iron grip which is slowly squeezing
the life-blood out of her.
1t is curious commentary that
the latest German peace proposal
was first dreamed" by a German
journalist in Washington, and by
him dispatched to Berlin. Such an
origin lends color to its boldncss
and its impudence. A German CORE
spondent in America who writes
gliby to his home paper about the
possibilities of developing division
and dissension in the United States
in times such as these, is a man who
will bear watching, and it is the duty
of the State Department to see that
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