Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-09-11
TyuCQHy PruSSLan.

The German minister at Buenos Aires was true
to his type and thoroughly representative of his
Government when he advised in a code message to
Berlin, underhandedly conveyed through the Swed-
ish legation, that Argentna's demands in the sub
marine controversy be spurned and that her ships
when torpedoed be sunk $50 that not trace of
them should be left" Typically Prussian too, was
his reference to the Argentine Minister of Foreign
Affairs "a notorious ass" Next to their utter
unscrupulousness nothing is characteristic of
the Kaiser and his their staggering con-
tempt for the rest of mankind.
" AS Count Luxburg has acted in Argentina, so
Count Won Bernstorff acted in the United States;
and so have German diplomats acted the world
over whenever they have had opportunity to prac-
tice the deceit and treachery in which their Gov
eminent so thoroughly schools them. Won Bern
storf while enjoying the protection and courtesles
of this Nation, nursing the plot for an invasion
of the United States by way of Mexico. Accorded
all the privileges which an honorable Government
grants supposedly honorable ambassador, he
played the part of common spy; and while reign
ing a tearfuy earnest desire to preserve peace be-
tween America and Germany, he fed the payroll
of the Kaser's incendiaries and bomb-throwers who
seeking to terrorize American industry Ger
man diplomacy is simply the hatch and brood of the
Hohenzollern system, a fit creature of the autoc-
racy that sneers at treaties as scraps of paper"
murder of women and children.
Argentina furnishes a peculiarly interesting ex-
ample of German double-dealing That country, If
not actually pro-German, was certainly very far
from pro-Aly when its grievances against subma-
rine piracy began to develop. Great Britain found
it necessary to threaten embargo on exports OF
coal and other necessaries to Argentina unless the
Argentine embargo on exports of wheat to the AL
lies was lifted. Popular sentiment in Argentina as
in Brazil Bolivia Chile and virtually every other
Latin American republic turned instinctively to-
ward the Allied cause. But German propagandists
did their cunning and desperate utmost to change
that natural bent and among some classes and GER
tain types of politicians, not unknown in the United
States, they measurably succeeded.
1t was the part of Count Luxburg, acting head
of the German legation at Buenos Aires, to foment
prejudice against the Allies and foster friendship
for the Kaiser. Argentina's warmest and stanchest
friend he and his co-workers would declare, was
Germany; her worst enemies, the Entente nations
and the United States. Yet, when the Argentine
Government made bold to ask redress for the wan
ton destruction of is shipping by Uboats the Ger
man diplomat secretly advised Berlin to spurn the
demands and that thereafter the U-boats should be
careful when sinking Argentine vessels not to leave
a trace of ship crew as evidence.
What Argentina will do, that the perfdious
and insulting course of German diplomacy has been
laid bare remains to be seen. For the world as
whole however the disclosure is chiefly interest
ing as another example of the long recognized fact
that in the present German Government there is no
vestige of truth or honor, authorities with
whom treaty-keeping nations can safely deal.