America Fallen!. John Bernard Walker

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       "Gentlemen," said the Kaiser, as the door closed upon the retiring Danish minister, "I have frequently said to you in this council chamber that the future of Germany lies upon the sea. To-day, in spite of the enforced inaction of our fleet during the war, I hold to that doctrine with unshaken conviction. Hence I did not hesitate, Von Buelow, to instruct you to offer fifteen billion dollars as the price of redeeming the fleet.

      "If you ask me, as all Germany, doubtless, is asking itself at this very hour, how it will be possible for our stricken Fatherland to discharge this enormous obligation, I answer that not a single pfennig of this indemnity shall be raised by the taxation ​of my beloved people, or be paid out of their national treasury.

      "Gentlemen, you may rest assured that when I authorized the acceptance of the indemnity, I had already determined on a plan by which this stupendous sum could be realized without adding to the heavy obligations which the war had already imposed upon us."

      Springing to his feet, the Kaiser swept his outstretched arm to the westward, and his voice took on that incisive staccato which indicates in him the deepest feeling: "On yonder side of the Atlantic lies an undefended treasure land, fifty billions of whose one hundred and fifty billions of wealth are to be found on the seaboard, and within easy reach of an expeditionary force and the guns of a hostile fleet. It is my purpose that the German Navy, on whose behalf I have assumed the indemnity, shall be made the instrument for ​securing the means of payment. It will appeal to your sense of the fitness of things that the United States, which has contributed so largely to our defeat, should pay the costs of this war and that the navy should play the part of collector.

      "If it should be said that this descent upon the coasts of the United States is a premeditated attack upon a friendly power, our reply will be, that, though the charge is technically true, ethically it is false. When that neutral country turned itself into an arsenal for the supply of guns, ammunition, and military stores and equipment to the enemies of Germany, it became in effect an active participant in our overthrow. You, Von Falkenhayn, will agree with me that the military supplies furnished to the Allies by the United States were of more value to them than several army corps. It was the preponderance of artillery, due in large measure to ​the purchases from America, that was the ultimate cause of our loss of the war.

      "Although it was technically correct and in agreement with international law, the material assistance rendered by the United States was, I repeat, morally wrong; and in sending my fleet to exact from that country both the indemnity and the cost to Germany of the war, or twenty billion dollars in all, I feel that I am performing no more than an act of righteous retribution.

      "The object of our expedition will be greatly facilitated by the fact that the dreadnought fleet of the United States, consisting of ten ships, is now assembled off Vera Cruz—the Washington Government being still engaged in toying with the Mexican situation by following out its futile policy of 'Watchful waiting.' Equally favorable to our plans is the fact that the bulk of the effective regular force of 30,000 men in the Continental United ​States is gathered on the Mexican border. The pre-dreadnought fleet of the United States, moreover, is being paraded, just now, in the various ports of the Pacific Coast.

      "You, Von Tirpitz, will agree with me that the prolonged inactivity of our fleet in the North Sea and Baltic ports has rendered it desirable that the ships be at once sent to sea for a series of maneuvers on a grand scale, the operations to extend over a series of weeks.

      "After a grand review, which I shall hold off Heligoland, the fleet will be dispatched to the Atlantic, ostensibly for these maneuvers, but actually for a descent upon the coasts of the United States.

      "From a rendezvous in the western Atlantic, the various divisions of the main fleet will move to the selected points of attack in accordance with the general plans formulated several years ago as the result ​of our academic study of the problem of an invasion of the United States. The modifications necessary for the present enterprise will be such as are rendered necessary by the present strength of our fleet, the location and strength of the enemy's forces, and by the imperative demand for secrecy, dispatch, and strict coordination as to time and place.

      That, gentlemen, is the plan and April 1, 1916, will be 'Der Tag!'"

      ​

      IV

      EMBARKATION OF THE GERMAN ARMY

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      Upon the declaration of peace, the German Government announced that the military rule and censorship which had obtained throughout the war would be extended to cover the few weeks which would be required for the demobilization of the German army. It was explained that this course was adopted for the double purpose of facilitating the orderly return of the citizen-soldiers to their homes, and of delaying any publication of the strength of the German army in the field at the close of the war, and of its total losses, until such time as the government thought best to make these facts public.

      On the very day, March 1st, of the ​signing of the Peace of Geneva, and in some cases even while the ink of the signatories was wet upon the paper, the great fleet of German merchant ships which had been interned in foreign ports during the war cast loose its moorings and set sail for the Fatherland. Among the first of these ships to start out from her pier and head for the open sea was the great Hamburg-American liner Vaterland, and as she and the Kaiser Wilhelm II, of the North German Lloyd, followed at intervals by other ships of these two companies, steamed down the North River, and out through the Narrows, New York wished them Godspeed on their homeward voyage with the flying of flags, the dipping of ensigns by the shipping, and the prolonged roar of a thousand steam whistles and sirens.

      Meanwhile in Germany all public traffic over the railways was suspended and the ​huge task of returning some seven millions of men to their homes was begun.

      Not all of the troops, however, were thus immediately redistributed to the farms and factories and business houses of Germany. A picked force of 200,000 veterans of the first line was diverted to the leading German seaports on the North Sea and the Baltic, and within a few days after the close of the war 20,000 of these troops, with the necessary artillery and equipment, had been embarked upon certain transports of moderate size and draft, which, as soon as the troops were aboard, pulled out into midstream and awaited further orders. In every case the troops went aboard at night, and during the operation the cordon of secrecy drawn around the various naval bases and ports at which the embarkation took place was tightened.

      While the loaded transports were awaiting their orders, the troops remained ​below deck and only the regular working force of the ship was visible. One by one, and from widely separated harbors, these ships slipped their moorings and put to sea. Some by the way of the English Channel and others following the route around the north coast of Scotland and Ireland, they proceeded at slow speed to their appointed rendezvous in the western Atlantic.

      Each ship sailed at sundown, and during the first night out the color and banding of its smokestacks were changed to that of some foreign ship of similar size and contour, the corresponding foreign flag being flown. Those that took the southerly route regulated their speed so as to pass through the straits of Dover at night; those that laid their course around the north of Scotland maintained a good offing, beyond signaling distance of the coast guard and signal stations. As soon ​as it was well clear of the Channel and the Irish coast, each ship, avoiding the regular sailing routes, laid its course to the westward.

      Meanwhile the work of transforming the largest and fastest of the German ocean liners, headed by the Imperator and her recently-completed sister ship, the new Bismarck, into transports was being rushed day and night by the largest working force that could be crowded upon their decks. The commodious, first-class state-rooms were stripped of their furniture and galvanized-pipe folding berths were fitted on each wall. The spacious saloons, restaurants, palm gardens, etc., were similarly denuded of their