They told me, too, of a nurse, a friend of theirs, who had gone to Russia. There she found, among other things, a carload of children, eighty in number, all dead of starvation. The Russians had put them in the car, sidetracked it, and forgotten it. Some other cars were found containing 200 people, all dead but one child in its mother's arms. The nurse saw the Czarina and told her of these, and many other things, and she said the Empress burst into tears. Well she might!
The Germans are told that if the Russians get into East Prussia again, they are to send the women away immediately—those who stay are all outraged.
VIII—A VISIT WITH ZIMMERMANN
June 12th.
Agatha Grabish called this morning. She has been to East Prussia. One old woman she talked to said she had stayed for the first Russian invasion.
"Why?" Agatha asked her.
"Well," she said, "my bread was baking when the others started to go, and I didn't want to leave it. But I might just as well have," she added, "because the Russians came in and ate it all up as soon as I took it out of the oven."
Billy (the author's husband) and I went to see Zimmermann in the Foreign Office. He, with Von Bethmann-Hollweg, Von Jagow, Helfferich, and Falkenhayn, are running Germany. Zimmermann is a large, blond man. His forehead is exceptionally high and his cheeks much scarred by sword slashes. He is genial, calm, and although the busiest man in the Empire, quite unhurried.
"I have just been seeing some bankers," said he. "We are negotiating another loan for our Turkish friends. Those people are always in need of money."
Billy said it was a great imposition for us to take up his time, as he was probably very busy. He laughed and declared he was glad to see us. I told him he was like Disraeli, who said he was not "unusually busy to-day" but "usually busy."...