In the afternoon an extract
from the log of a German submarine commander was sent to me in
which the submarine commander had stated that he had sighted a
vessel which he could easily have torpedoed, but as the vessel
was one hundred and twenty miles from land, he had not done so
because the crew might not be able from that distance to reach a
harbour. When the Chancellor called for me the following morning,
he asked me if I had read this extract from the submarine officer's
log, and noted how he had refrained from torpedoing a boat one
hundred and twenty miles from land. I told the Chancellor that I
had read the extract, but that I had also read in the newspaper
that very morning that a ship had been torpedoed in stormy weather
at exactly the same distance from land and the crew compelled
to seek safety in the ship's boats; that, anyway, "one swallow
did not make a summer," and that reports were continually being
received of boats being torpedoed at great distances from land.
We then got in the motor and motored to the chateau about a mile
off, where the Kaiser resided.
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