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Page 10
"Take it up to your room to-night and look it over. You will find the
most overwhelming mass of testimony to the effect that to-day, in spite
of all that has been said and written and all the money spent, the United
States is totally unprepared to defend its coasts or uphold its national
honour. Just open the book anywhere--you'll see."
I obeyed and came upon this statement by Theodore Roosevelt:
What befell Antwerp and Brussels will surely some day befall New York or
San Francisco, and may happen to many an inland city also, if we do not
shake off our supine folly, if we trust for safety to peace treaties
unbacked by force.
"Pretty strong words for an ex-President of the United States to be
using," nodded the Admiral. "And true! Try another place."
I did so and came upon this from the pen of Gerhard von
Schulze-Gaevernitz, professor of political economy at the University of
Freiburg and a member of the Reichstag:
Flattered and deftly lulled to sleep by British influence, public
opinion in the United States will not wake up until the 'yellow New
England' of the Orient, nurtured and deflected from Australia by England
herself, knocks at the gates of the new world. Not a patient and meek
China, but a warlike and conquest-bound Japan will be the aggressor when
that day comes. Then America will be forced to fight under unfavourable
conditions.
The famous campaigner's eyes flashed towards the Pacific.
"When that day comes! Ah! Speaking of Japan," he turned over the pages in
nervous haste. "Here we are! You can see how much the Japanese love us!
Listen! This is an extract from the most popular book in Japan to-day. It
is issued by Japan's powerful and official National Defence Association
with a view to inflaming the Japanese people against the United States
and preparing them for a war of invasion against this country. Listen to
this:
"Let America beware! For our cry, 'On to California! On to Hawaii!
On to the Philippines!' is becoming only secondary to our imperial
anthem!... To arms! We must seize our standards, unfurl them to the winds
and advance without the least fear, as America has no army worthy the
name, and with the Panama Canal destroyed, its few battleships will be of
no use until too late.
"I tell you, Mr. Langston," pursued the Admiral, "we Americans are to-day
the most hated nation on earth. The richest, the most arrogant, the most
hated nation on earth! And helpless! Defenceless! Believe me, that's a
bad combination. Look at this! Read this! It's a cablegram to the New
York _Tribune_, published on May 21, 1915, from Miss Constance Drexel, an
American delegate to the Woman's Peace Conference at The Hague:
"I have just come out of Germany and perhaps the predominating impression
I bring with me is Germany's hatred of America. Germany feels that war
with America is only a matter of time. Everywhere I went I found the same
sentiment, and the furthest distance away I found the war put was ten
years. It was said to me: 'We must settle with England first, but then
will come America's turn. If we don't make war on you ourselves we will
get Japan into a war with you, and then we will supply arms and munitions
to Japan.'"
At this point, I remember, I had turned to order an orange liqueur, when
the crash came.
It was terrific. Every window in the hotel was shattered, and some scores
of labourers working near the Gatun Locks were killed instantly. Six
hundred tons of dynamite, secreted in the hold of a German merchantman,
had been exploded as the vessel passed through the locks, and ten
thousand tons of Portland cement had sunk in the tangled iron wreck, to
form a huge blockading mass of solid rock on the floor of the narrow
passage.
Needless to say, every man on the German ship thus sacrificed died at his
post.
The Admiral stared in dismay when the news was brought to him.
"Germany!" he muttered. "And our fleet is in the Pacific!"
"Does it mean war?" I asked.
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