The Lamar register., 1918-09-25


not bridge built. not street opened,
not park laid out, but what the prof.
ect was first submitted to him. He
kept posted on everything that was
going on, not only in Germany, but in
the world at large. and. as far as he
was able, he endeavored to have his
finger in every development of world
wide importance. l cannot imagine
that he was less interested In what his
countrymen were doing In connection
with the war than he was in their
achievements in time of peace.
If he did not actually order the sink
ing of the Lusitania, therefore, l am
convinced that he was thoroughly
aware of the plan to blow 1t up and
sanctioned 1t. That he could have
averted 1t If he had been prompted to
to do SO is clearly Indicated by another
incident which left a very deep i'm
preston upon me.
I was Informed by one of the Ger
man aviators that plans had been
made to drop gas bombs on London
which contained a deadly gas which
would penetrate the cellars of houses
In which civilians were In the habit
of hiding during air raids.
Shortly before this hideous idea was
to be put into effect the papers an
nounced that bombs of this character
had been dropped by the allies on
Baden-Baden, but that, fortunately.
they had fallen in a clump OF woods
in the center of the town and had fall
ed to explode. which had given the
10 col har
apart and ascertain their nature.
The purpose of this announcement.
of course. was to forestall the storm of
condemnation which the Germans
knew would follow their use OF the
bombs on London-a ruse which they
had Invariably employed whenever
they contemplated some fresh violation
of the rules OF international law and
the dictates of humanity.
1t happened that one of my patients
who resided In Baden-Baden called to
see me the day after the bombs had
been dropped on her town. and she
told me all about It.
"The airplanes which dropped the
bombs had been flying over the city all
the morning." she declared. I'VE
thought they were our own machines
out for practice and paid no particular
attention to them. Then they dropped
the bombs and they landed In the
woods, and we knew we had been at
tackled. What dreadful thing for
them to dol"
What foolish thing for allied air
planes to do-to spend a whole morn
ing studying the layout OF the town
and then to drop those deadly bombs
on a ciump OF woods where they could
not possibly hurt anyone, and how
careless OF the Germans not to modest
them while they were engaged in their
devilish work
But the point wanted to bring out
was this: these gas bombs were never
used on London!
AUST as everything was In readiness
for the raid" the officer told me re-
gretfuliy. 1--WE received orders direct
from the kaiser to hold OFF, saw his
signature to the order. OF course.
there was nothing for us TO do but
comply. but II we had had the kniser
there. believe we would have strung
him up by the neck We still have
tuOSt Dol1DS, hoNtNtis uhu sbu may
be sure they will yet be used I"
For some unknown reason the kaiser
stopped the use of those lethal gas
bombs for the time being. Why didn't
he move to save the women and chill
dren on the Lusitania?
When I went back to Berlin In the
fall of 1915. after visit to the United
States. the kaiser was very anxious to
ascertain from me just how America
felt towards the war.
/ told him that before the sinking of
the Lusitania American opinion had
been divided. There had been many
who were strongly pro-ally, there had
been others who were openly pro-
German and there had been still 9TH
ers who maintained an absolutely neu-
trail attitude. After the Lusitania
tragedy. however, there had been a
distinct change In public feeling, told
him. practically the whole country
having become decidedly anti-German.
perhaps II the U-boat commander
had known so many women and chill
dren were on board" was the kaiser's
only comment ''he might not have sent
forth the torpedo which sent the vessel
to the bottom. but what he was think
ing Of most, of course, was the 5000
tons of ammunition on board which