It seems to me that this denial makes
the case rather worse than before.
At the Chancellor's house in the evenings we had discussions
on the submarine situation and I had several long talks with
von Bethmann-Hollweg alone in a corner of the room while the
others listened to music or set the mechanical toys in motion.
These discussions, without doubt, were reported to the Emperor
either by the Chancellor or by von Treutler who at that time
was high in favor with his Majesty.
I remember on one evening I was asked the question as to what
America could do, supposing the almost impossible, that America
should resent the recommencement of ruthless submarine warfare
by the Germans and declare war. I said that nearly all of the
great inventions used in this war had been made by Americans;
that the very submarine which formed the basis of our discussion
was an American invention, and so were the barbed wire and the
aeroplane, the ironclad, the telephone and the telegraph, so
necessary to trench warfare; that even that method of warfare
had been first developed on something of the present scale in our
Civil War; and that I believed that, if forced to it, American
genius could produce some invention which might have a decisive
effect in this war.
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