Among the many incidents that have marked the unanimous uprising of the populations of My Empire in defence of its unity and integrity, nothing has moved me more than the passionate devotion to My Throne expressed both by My Indian subjects, and by the Feudatory Princes and the Ruling Chiefs of India, and their prodigal offers of their lives and their resources in the cause of the Realm. Their one-voiced demand to be foremost in the conflict has touched My heart, and has inspired to the highest issues the love and devotion which, as I well know, have ever linked My Indian subjects and Myself. I recall to mind India's gracious message to the British nation of goodwill and fellowship, which greeted My return in February, 1912, after the solemn ceremony of My Coronation Durbar at Delhi, and I find in this hour of trial a full harvest and a noble fulfilment of the assurance given by you that the destinies of Great Britain and India are indissolubly linked.
At the very beginning of the struggle, Germany had made a determined effort to win the friendship of the United States. From the great American Republic the great European autocracy wanted three things: moral support, money, and assistance in rescuing the German mercantile marine. German shipping to the amount of hundreds of thousands of tons was imprisoned in American ports; to venture outside would have been to court disaster from the strong squadrons of the British and French cruisers in the Atlantic. It was therefore suggested by the numerous Germans in New York and Washington, and by Germans who had become naturalised Americans, that with a view to the restoration of American shipping it would be a good plan to purchase from Germany the numerous German liners lying idle in American waters. The scheme did not make sufficient progress for any definite amount of money to be mentioned; but it was stated that the value of the steamers was estimated at £20,000,000—a sum which would have been very useful to Germany in carrying on the campaign.
Acting under instructions from their Governments, protests were lodged at Washington by the British and French Embassies against this proposed transfer of German merchant shipping to a neutral flag. Legally the transfer would have been objectionable; and in any case the scheme was supported in America almost entirely by financiers of German extraction and was bitterly opposed by all American shipowners and shipbuilders. It is satisfactory to state that the New York correspondent of The Daily Telegraph, cabling on September 1st, said that the American Government had decided not to buy the German vessels, but would confine itself to purchasing neutral ships only.
Apart from this matter, the sympathies of the United States, in spite of the fact that some 30,000,000 of its inhabitants were of German extraction, were favourable to the Allies and not to the Teutonic Powers. The German case was set forth in many American newspapers with all the force of which the German Press Bureau was capable; and many well-known German professors used their influence to show that the struggle was one between culture and barbarism, the culture being represented by Germany and the barbarism by Russia. Whatever sympathy such statements as these aroused at first was speedily transferred to the other side when the American public began to hear, not merely of the German atrocities in Belgium, but of the brutal manner in which the neutrality of small and friendly countries such as Belgium and Luxembourg had been violated by the invaders. The German Ambassador at Washington, Count Bernstorff, was kept busy explaining why "strictness" was necessary in warfare; but no one took kindly to his explanation regarding the burning of Louvain, viz.: "War is not an afternoon tea-party."
By the end of August, some of the American papers began to wonder why the German Press agents in America were able to flood the Press with what they alleged to be the only trustworthy news respecting the situation at the front. It was said that this news was being sent by wireless to the German Embassy at Washington by way of the Sayville Wireless Station. An investigation at Washington disclosed the interesting fact that the Sayville Wireless Station could not possibly be in direct communication with Germany, as the distance was too great. The German Ambassador's explanation was that the messages were being relayed by German warships; but this was not credited, as it was known that very few German warships were in the Atlantic and that they were being kept continually on the move by the British and French Fleets.
Various organisations, both in Germany and in the United States, attempted to appeal to American sentiments by issuing pamphlets containing alleged facts regarding the campaign. The influence of these pamphlets, however, was a great deal more than balanced by the Chancellor's contemptuous reference to the "scrap of paper," described in the first chapter of this book.
Furthermore, it was pointed out in the American Press that Germany, so far as her social and military system was concerned, represented the antithesis of American ideals, and that a victory for Germany would inevitably lead to the imposition of her strict military system upon the world in general. Again, as a result of the falling off in imports from England, France, and Germany, the American customs receipts declined very considerably, and it was announced early in September that it would be necessary, in view of this falling off, to raise some £20,000,000 by internal taxation. The American Press promptly blamed the Kaiser for thus inconveniencing the financial arrangements of the United States, and the feeling against Germany in America became stronger than ever.
By way of climax, a striking expression of opinion came from one of the best-known American educationalists, Professor W.G. Hales. Professor Hales communicated his views to the London correspondent of the New York Times, in which paper they appeared on September 7th. He advocated an immediate declaration of war by the United States against Germany for the latter's violation of The Hague Conventions, particularly in its use of floating mines and its destruction of Louvain.
"What has always been wanted," continued Professor Hales, "is a sanction for the pacts of nations. There could be no more splendid sanction than the declaration of a great nation outside the immediate conflict that, where she is a party, they shall, so far as lies in her power, be kept sacred.