This was only one
of the many times when I complained to the Chancellor about the
condition of prisoners. I am sure that he did not approve of the
manner in which prisoners of war in Germany were treated; but
he always complained that he was powerless where the military
were concerned, and always referred me to Bismarck's memoirs.
During this winter of submarine controversy an interview with
von Tirpitz, thinly veiled as an interview with a "high naval
authority," was published in that usually most conservative of
newspapers, the _Frankfurter_Zeitung_. In this interview the
"high naval authority" advocated ruthless submarine war with
England, and promised to bring about thereby the speedy surrender
of that country. After the surrender, which was to include the
whole British fleet, the German fleet with the surrendered British
fleet added to its force, was to sail for America, and exact from
that country indemnities enough to pay the whole cost of the war.
After his fall, von Tirpitz, in a letter to some admirers who
had sent him verses and a wreath, advocated holding the coast of
Flanders as a necessity for the war against England and America.
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