The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-11-25

of the American division of the for
eign Office, informed Gerard the Amer
lean correspondents wound be held as
hostages II America did this Gerard
replied that he would not leave until
the correspondents and all other
Americans we're permitted to leave
over any route they selected. Vir-
tuaiiy all OF the correspondents had
handed in their passports to the for
eign Office. but not until four hours
before the special train departed for
Switzerland were the passports re-
turned. when Gerard asked the for
eign ONCE whether his passports were
good TO the United States the foreign
office was silent. and neither would
the general staff guarantee the cor
respondents a safe-couduct through
the German submarine zone. So the
only thing the ambassador could do
was to select "a route via Switzerland,
France and Spain to Cuba and the
United States.
The train which left Berlin on the
might OF February 10 carried the hap
piest group OF Americans which mad
been in Europe since the war began.
Virtually no one slept. When the
Swiss hor3er was reached the Stars
and Stripes were hung from the Car
windows and Americans breathed
again In a free land. They felt like
prisoners escaping from a peniten-
tiary. Most Of them had been under
surveillance or suspicion for months.
Nearly es ery one had had personal
experiences which proved TO them
that the German people were like the
government there VAS no respect for
public sentiment or moral obligation.
Some of the women had upon pre-
vious occasions when they crossed tire
German frontier Submitted TO the
most inhuman indignities, but they
remained in Germany because their
husbands were connected in some way
with the United States government or
semi public service work. They were
delighted to escape the land where
everything is "verboten' except hatred
and nilitarism The second day al
ter Gsrard's arrival in Berns' Ameri-
can Minister Stoval gave a reception
10 the ambassador and invited the
srTfE7Y dTpT0mats From that evening
cu until he sailed from Corunna
Spain The ambassador felt that he
was among friends When the Ameri-
cans accompanying the AMBASSADOR
asked the French authorities in Swift
zerland for permission TO enter France,
the Frech replied.
OF course you can go through
r rance, on are SAiIeS ana rance
welcomes you
After the Americans arrived in
Paris they said they were not eonsld
cred exiles but guests.
After the break In diplomatic rela-
tons the slogan OF German nlili,arisxn
became: Win or lose. we must end
the war
To many observers II seemed to be
insanity coupled with desperation
which caused the kaiser 10 derry the
fcii9ed States. There was nc doubt
that Germany was desperate economi-
cally. morally and militarily. While
the war had led German armies far
into enemy territory, II had destroyed
German influence throughout the
world: It had lost Germany-s colonies
and Pacific possessions and II had
turned the opinion OF the world
against Germany But during the
time Germany was trying to impress
the United States with it's sincerity
after the Sussex incident tho German
navy was building submarines II was
not building these ships to be used In
cruiser warfare. 1t was building them
for the future, when submarine war
would be launched on big scale
perhaps on bigger scale than IL had
ever before been conducted.
Continued tomorrow