The last is a mere comment on a well-known, German statesman, who told me that as I was seeking the truth in Germany I had better go and find it at Potsdam.
I wish to deal with the denials one by one, as each is a revelation of German psychology.
1. The hospital train, This says "Hospital
which reached Potsdam on train" (singular). I
August 4, and was there described hospital trains
unloaded, brought wounded (plural). It may be true
men from various troop that one train did not
divisions. There were no contain any Prussian Guards.
Prussian Guards among them. I did not happen to see
that train. All the trains
that I saw unloaded Prussian
Guard Reserves.
2. No wounded man is I have never said that
kept concealed in Germany. any wounded man was
All are consigned to kept concealed in Germany.
public hospitals or I have pointed out
lazarets, where they may that the whole system of
at any time be visited the German placing of the
by their relatives and wounded is to hide from
friends. the German population,
and especially in Social
Democrat districts, the
extent of their wounded.
3. Hospital trains travel This is absolutely untrue.
by day as well as by night, The number of wounded arriving
and, in accordance with at the depots in Germany is
instructions, are unloaded now so great that the trains
only in the daytime. In are obliged to be unloaded
case they reach their whenever they arrive, by day
destination during the or by night. I have witnessed
night, the regulations both.
provide that they are to
wait until the following
morning before unloading.
4. In order that the loading The whole of this paragraph
or unloading of the vehicles is a transparent distortion
which transport the wounded of fact. What happens at
to the lazarets may proceed Potsdam and what happens
as rapidly as possible, it everywhere else is that a
is necessary to keep the cordon of police surrounds
surroundings of the train the scene and, drives the
clear. The wounded must public by force in the usual
also be spared all annoyance Prussian way, if necessary,
and curiosity on the part from the scene. I described
of the public. the method by which I
witnessed what was going on
at the railway station from
the railway station
refreshment room itself.
5. Dead men have never been I saw the dead men removed. unloaded from the lazaret trains at Potsdam—therefore there could have been none on August 4, 1916. The principle of transporting the wounded is based upon the ability of the wounded to bear transportation. All those who suffer during the journey are removed to a hospital at the frontier.
6. The furniture vans A transparent untruth
used for transporting on the face of it. If only
wounded to the hospitals one train came into Potsdam
at Potsdam and other why use furniture vans at
cities have proved a great all? The furniture vans
success. These vans, are used for purposes of
moreover, all bear the sign concealment, and because
of the Red Cross, and may the very large ambulance
easily be recognised as supply always on duty at
hospital vehicles. the great military
hospitals at Potsdam was
unequal to the task. I saw
no Red Cross indications.
7. That men who are My statement is that all
seriously wounded should the German wounded at
give one an impression of the present stage of the
weariness goes without war, lightly or otherwise,
saying. Lightly wounded compare badly with the
men who travel from the English and French
Somme to Boulogne may wounded, whom I have
make a better appearance seen. They are utterly
than the seriously wounded war weary and suffering
who have made the long not so much from shell
journey from the West shock as from surprise
front to Potsdam. shock, the revelation of the
creation of a British
Army that had never
occurred to the German
soldiers.
8. As to the great "Hush! I have made inquiries hush! machinery"—what is of British officials, and one to call the attempt they tell me that it is to keep the truth from absolutely untrue that the neutrals by closing channel is closed to English harbours near the neutral shipping when the Channel to neutral shipping English hospital transports for whole days at a proceed to England. time—during which the This untruth is on a par English ship-transports of with the others. wounded proceed to England?