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Page 28
These words hurt.
"America is a long way from being a conquered province," I retorted.
He shook his head good-naturedly, whereupon I resolved to control my
temper. It would be folly to offend the prince and thus lose my chance to
secure an interview of international importance, which this proved to be.
"We hold New York already," he continued. "Within three weeks we shall
hold New England. Within three months we shall hold your entire Atlantic
seaboard."
"We may win back our lost territory," said I.
"Never. We are conquerors. We will stay here exactly as the Manchu
conquerors stayed in China. Exactly as the Seljuk conquerors stayed in
Asia Minor. Your military strength is broken. Your fleet will be
destroyed when it reaches the Caribbean. How can you drive us out?"
"Our population is over a hundred million."
"China's population is over three hundred million and a handful of
Japanese rule her. Remember, America is not like Russia with her heart
deep inland. The military heart of America lies within a radius of 180
miles from New York City and we hold it, or soon will. In that small
strip, reaching from Boston to Delaware Bay, are situated nine-tenths of
the war munition factories of the United States, the Springfield Armory,
the Watervliet Arsenal, the Picatinny Arsenal, the Frankfort Arsenal, the
Dupont powder works, the Bethlehem steel works, and all these will
shortly be in our hands. How can you take them from us? How can you get
along without them?"
"We can build other munition factories in the West."
"That will take a year or more, in which time we shall have fortified the
whole Appalachian Mountain system from Florida to the St. Lawrence, so
that no army can ever break through. Do you see?"
The prince paused with a masterful smile and played with a large signet
ring on his third finger.
"Surely Your Imperial Highness does not think that Germany can conquer
the whole of America?"
"Of course not, at least not for many years. We are content with your
Atlantic seaboard, the garden spot of the earth in climate and resources.
We shall hold this region and develop it along broad lines of German
efficiency and German _kultur._ What wonderful improvements we will make!
How we will use the opportunities you have wasted!
"Ha! Let me give you one instance among many of your incredible
inefficiency. Those disappearing carriages of your coast defence guns! I
suppose they were the pet hobby of some politician with an interest in
their manufacture, but Gott in Himmel! what foolishness! The guns
themselves are good enough, but the carriages allow them an elevation
of only ten percent against a thirty percent elevation that is possible
for guns of equal calibre on our battleships, which means that our
twelve-inch guns outrange yours by a couple of miles simply because we
can fire them at a higher angle."
"You mean that one of your super-dreadnoughts--"
"Exactly. One of our super-dreadnoughts can lie off Rockaway Beach
and drop shells from her twelve-inch guns into Union Square, and the
twelve-inch guns of your harbour forts, handicapped by their stupid
carriages, could never touch her."
The conversation now turned to other subjects and presently the prince
was led by enthusiasm or arrogance to make a series of statements that
gave extraordinary importance to my interview, since they enraged the
whole Anglo-Saxon world, particularly our Western and Middle Western
states. Fortunately I submitted my manuscript to Frederick William before
cabling the interview to London, so there was no danger of his
repudiating my words.
With brutal frankness this future ruler of a nation maintained that
against German arms America must now go down to defeat just as England
went down to partial defeat in 1917 and for the same unchangeable reason
that the fittest among nations inevitably survive.
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