The indignation and the revulsion of Americans against Germany because of the destruction of the Lusitania with the appalling loss of life was a surprise to the Kaiser and his war staff. They apparently had believed that the warning contained in the official announcement of Germany, declaring the waters about the British Islands a war zone, and the advertisement published would be sufficient excuse, and that their act would be accepted calmly by America. They were not prepared for Colonel Roosevelt’s invective stigmatizing the act as piracy, or the editorial denunciation throughout the country. Their effrontery was displayed by one of their agents, who announced that American ships also would be sunk. But this agent’s removal from the country and mob violence threatened other agents was emphatic proof of America’s state of mind.
Immediately Germany turned as a defence to the argument that the Lusitania carried munitions of war and other contraband in violation of the United States Federal statute. But the American laws were quoted to Ambassador von Bernstorff to prove to him that cartridges could be transported in a passenger ship. That argument proved of no avail.
Secretary Bryan’s note, written by President Wilson, and forwarded to Berlin, demanded a disavowal of the sinking of the Lusitania, an apology and reparation for the lives lost. But Germany sought to parley with a reply that would lay the blame on Great Britain, and asserting that the Lusitania had been an armed auxiliary cruiser, requested an investigation of these alleged facts, and refused to stop her submarine warfare until England changed her trade policy. But this note again aroused the wrath of Americans.
LIES AND DECEIT
German secret agents began to manufacture evidence to support the Kaiser’s contentions. Here a hireling of Boy-Ed looms as an obedient servant of the naval attaché, whether he knew all the facts or not. It was Koenig, who, using the alias of Stemler, obtained from Gustave Stahl an affidavit to the effect that he had seen four fifteen-centimetre guns on the decks of the Lusitania before she left port on her ill-fated voyage. There were three other supporting affidavits. All these documents were handed to Boy-Ed on June 1, 1915, and the following day were in the hands of von Bernstorff, who turned them over to the State Department in Washington.
It required but little work on the part of Federal agents to establish the untruth of Stahl’s affidavit. Stahl, a German reservist, appeared before the Federal Grand Jury, where he again repeated his lies. He was indicted for perjury and upon a plea of guilty was sent to the Federal prison at Atlanta.
It was Koenig who had hidden Stahl away after the latter had made his affidavit, and it was Koenig who, at the command of the Federal authorities, produced him.
So here again Germany’s efforts to deceive and to justify her piratical act came to naught, and left her even more damned before the world. Time came within a few days for President Wilson to reject forcibly the flimsy defence made by Germany, but before that note was drafted, the United States authorities by a thorough investigation of Sayville, and a scrutiny of the German naval officers employed there, discovered that the fake code message that drove the Lusitania to her grave in the sea had been flashed out from neutral territory; that the conspiracy had been developed in America, though the details were not obtainable at that time as they are presented here.
President Wilson was determined to demand absolute safety for Americans at sea. Though Bryan resigned, Mr. Wilson sent a note, asserting that the Lusitania was not armed, and had not carried cargo in violation either of American or international law. The action of Bryan weakened the position of America in demanding a cessation of Germany’s submarine warfare. It gave encouragement to Austria, after Germany had promised to obey international law, to try a series of similar evasions. It gave impetus to Germany’s plans to make a settlement of the submarine controversy and to try to divide Congress on the issue.
The loss to America was 113 lives and a great amount of prestige; to Germany, a tremendous amount of sympathy. But through it all stand out the pictures of secret agents, boasters, schemers and reckless adventurers, one of whom, having aided in the sinking of the Lusitania and the drowning of hundreds of her passengers and crew, had still the audacity to dine on the evening of this ghastly triumph at the home of an American victim. One agent high in international affairs, overcome by the force of the tragedy done in answer to the Kaiser’s bidding, had still enough decency left to remark: