This alone shows how cleverly Germany seeks to poison the minds especially of Holland and America. The danger will increase when the Press Bureau opens. The Dutch Government, I am assured, has striven and is striving to be absolutely correct in its attitude towards England and Germany.
There may have been cases in which Belgians, driven mad by their sufferings, have been guilty of outrages, but the German charge as a whole is absolutely untrue. On the other hand, the Belgian Government at Antwerp has, I am assured, convincing proof that the German troops have been guilty of every crime and brutality.
Belgians of the highest rank who recently visited The Hague describe the spirit of Antwerp as splendid. The Belgian Prime Minister is proving himself a second Kitchener. He holds undisputed sway, and is absolutely trusted by everyone.
The same correspondent added that it would be impracticable to try to starve Germany out by blockading the Dutch Coast, as hardly any foodstuffs were being sent to Germany through Holland.
The campaign of mendacity organised by Germans in the United States was also carried into Canada. The Montreal Star stated that on August 20th a well-known Montreal lawyer received a letter from a prominent German resident of New York in which was given as an authenticated fact, which the British censors had suppressed, the story of the sinking of seven British Dreadnoughts by German torpedo-boats. A banker was assured by a German acquaintance in New York that Germany had officially announced the destruction of an English seaport—name not given—by bombs from a Zeppelin. Another lawyer was asked confidentially to suggest the best means of getting this "news" from German sources to the Montreal public.
A Montreal citizen sent to the Canadian Gazette the following paragraph from the New Yorker Staats Zeitung, as circulated in Canada:
New York, August 18th.—We have very favourable news from private letters concerning the Zeppelin airships. The question has often been asked: "Where are the Zeppelins, and what are they doing?" The following information received in a private letter speaks for itself:
"Every night the Zeppelin airships go out to the North Sea, and when they return there is an English battleship destroyed. Nineteen English battleships have been destroyed so far."