Nevertheless, I think that the inclination of the President was
to go very far towards the forcing of peace.
Our trip from New York to Copenhagen was uneventful, cold and
dark. We were captured by a British cruiser west of the Orkneys
and taken in for the usual search to the port of Kirkwall where
we remained two days.
The President impressed upon me his great interest in the Belgians
deported to Germany. The action of Germany in thus carrying a
great part of the male population of Belgium into virtual slavery
had roused great indignation in America. As the revered Cardinal
Farley said to me a few days before my departure, "You have to
go back to the times of the Medes and the Persians to find a
like example of a whole people carried into bondage."
Mr. Grew had made representations about this to the Chancellor
and, on my return, I immediately took up the question.
I was informed that it was a military measure, that Ludendorf had
feared that the British would break through and overrun Belgium
and that the military did not propose to have a hostile population
at their backs who might cut the rail lines of communication,
telephones and telegraphs; and that for this reason the deportation
had been decided on.
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