week, one day or one
hour longer than the other."

And this Admiral, who, dressed in civilian clothes, looked more like a
New York financier than a naval officer, leaned forward in his chair,
looked straight at me and concluded the interview by saying:

"The Allies will win."

CHAPTER X

THE OUTLAWED NATION

During the Somme battles several of the American correspondents in Berlin
were invited to go to the front near Peronne and were asked to luncheon
by the Bavarian General von Kirchhoff, who was in command against the
French. When the correspondents reached his headquarters in a little
war-worn French village they were informed that the Kaiser had just
summoned the general to decorate him with the high German military order,
the Pour le Merite. Luncheon was postponed until the general returned.
The correspondents watched him motor to the chateau where they were and
were surprised to see tears in his eyes as he stepped out of the
automobile and received the cordial greetings and congratulations of his
staff. Von Kirchhoff, in a brief impromptu speech, paid a high tribute
to the German troops which were holding the French and said the
decoration was not his but his troops'. And in a broken voice he
remarked that these soldiers were sacrificing their lives for the
Fatherland, but were called "Huns and Barbarians" for doing it. There
was another long pause and the general broke down, cried and had to leave
his staff and guests.

These indictments of the Allies were more terrible to him than the war
itself.

General von Kirchhoff in this respect is typical of Germany. Most
Germans, practically every German I knew, could not understand why the
Allies did not respect their enemies as the Germans said they respected
the Allies.

A few weeks later, in November, when I was on the Somme with another
group of correspondents, I was asked by nearly every officer I met why it
was that Germany was so hated throughout the world. It was a question I
could not easily answer without, perhaps, hurting the feelings of the men
who wanted to know, or insulting them, which as a guest I did not desire
to do.

A few days later on the train from Cambrai to Berlin I was asked by a
group of officers to explain why the people in the United States,
especially, were so bitter. To get the discussion under way the Captain
from the General Staff who had acted as our escort presented his
indictment of American neutrality and as