McAdoo sought information
as to the negotiations under way at that time for the purchase of the
munitions plants in this country by the German interests.

The report of Secretary McAdoo today stirred the Cabinet as deeply
almost as the resignation of Secretary of State Bryan. Complete
reports were asked and the Secret Service arm of the Government will
be required to furnish immediately more complete and detailed
information.

_Of the efforts to obtain control of the munitions companies, The
Providence Journal of June 9, 1915, reported:_

Acting under the personal instructions of the German Ambassador,
several German bankers of New York have been working together for the
last week on preliminary negotiations for the purchase of every large
plant they can lay their hands on which is now engaged in turning out
munitions of war for the Allies.

Count von Bernstorff, Dr. Dernburg, and two well-known German bankers
held a conference at the German Embassy in Washington on Tuesday, June
1. At that conference the Ambassador outlined in detail instructions
he had received the day before from Berlin to proceed with this
propaganda, and he declared to the three men there present that his
Government considered the success of the plan as of vital importance,
superseding every other phase of the war situation.

The bankers at once returned to New York, and at a meeting next day
with Captain Boy-Ed and several other men at the German Club outlined
their plan of campaign.

For months past the German Ambassador has been in possession of a list
of factories all over the country engaged in turning out munitions of
war for the Allies. Last Saturday a concerted movement was begun
toward securing a majority control of many of these plants.

When one of the bankers at the conference in Washington asked the
Ambassador if he had any conception of the magnitude of the financial
problems involved in the scheme he replied that his Government was
fully prepared to pay everything necessary, and repeated that the fate
of the empire might rest on the success or failure of the plan. He
then added these words:

"There is no limit, gentlemen, to the amount of money available."

The activities of the representatives of Count von Bernstorff in this
matter have already brought them up to the point of negotiation, or
attempted negotiation, with the Fore River Shipbuilding Company, the
Remington Arms Company, the Bethlehem Steel Company, and the Un