" (From the _Muenchen-Augsburger Abendzeitung_, August 3rd.)

The _Frankfurter Zeitung_, August 4th, contains three separate detailed
accounts of French airmen dropping bombs on Frankfort railway station
during the previous night. The third account will suffice.

"The military authorities in Frankfort were informed last night that a
hostile airman was flying in the direction from Darmstadt to Frankfort.
At ten minutes past one the noise of the propellers as well as bursting
bombs was heard by those standing on the command-bridge of the Central
Station. In the dark night it was impossible to see the flying-machine.
As it approached the station, where all lights were out, fifty to sixty
soldiers stationed on the command-bridge fired at the aeroplane, which
soon moved off in the direction of the Southern Station. There, too, it
came under a heavy fire from soldiers and policemen. Nothing whatever
has been found on the ground or at the station, not even parts of the
bombs. It is assumed that the hand-bombs exploded in the air."[26]

[Footnote 26: Yes, they burst in the air, _aus der sie gegriffen worden
sind!_ Author.]

In peace times no German editor would dare to refuse any contribution
sent to him by the military authorities. The above airman-story
sufficiently illustrates the state of affairs in war time.

"Chemnitz, August 4th. During the past night, between 3 and 4 a.m., a
French airman dropped bombs on Chemnitz. Bombs exploded in the streets
without, however, doing any damage. Apparently the shots fired at the
aeroplane were unfortunately without result." _Magdeburgische Zeitung_,
August 5th.

This is an excellent example of how the Press trick is worked. A lying
report is published in a city hundreds of miles away from the scene of
the alleged occurrence. The extract where it was alleged that a French
airman was shot down at Wesel, on the Dutch frontier, was published in a
Munich paper, four hundred miles away.

The last and supreme lie in Bethmann-Hollweg's speech is the most
insidious of all. The Chancellor sketched a truly moving picture of
Germany beseeching Austria to find a _modus vivendi_ between herself and
Russia. Germany claims that up to the last minute of the last fatal week
she was working for peace. Bethmann-Hollweg insinuates that on July 31st
a last decision was to have fallen in Vienna; he does not tell us what
that decision would have been, but he maintains that Russia's military
preparation