Commandant of the city, and secured immunity in the form of the
Commandant's signature on a scrap of paper stamped in purple ink with
the Prussian eagle. Commandant Hahnke, after expressing the opinion that
it was good that American newspaper men were coming to Germany to see
for themselves, and hoping that "the truth" was beginning to become
known on the other side, courteously sent his Adjutant along to get me
past the guard at the Great General Staff and introduce me to Major
Nikolai, Chief of Division III. B., in charge of newspaper
correspondents and Military Attaches. Here, however, the freedom of the
American press came into hopeless, but humorous, collision with the
Prussian militarism.

"Who are you? What are you doing here? How did you get here?" snapped
the Prussian Major. A kind letter of introduction from Ambassador
Gerard, requesting "all possible courtesy and assistance from the
authorities of the countries through which he may pass," and emblazoned
with the red seal of the United States of America, which had worked like
magic on all previous occasions, had no effect on Major Nikolai. Neither
had a letter from the American Consul at Cologne, nor a letter of
introduction to Gen. von Buelow, nor any one of a dozen other impressive
documents produced in succession for his benefit.

"No foreign correspondents are permitted to be at the Great
Headquarters. None has been allowed to come here. If we allow one to
remain, fifty others will want to come, and we should be unable to keep
an eye on all of them," he explained. "You must go back to Berlin at
once."

Reluctant permission was finally obtained to remain one night on the
possibly unwarranted intimation that the great American people would
consider it a "national affront" if an American newspaperman was not
allowed to stay and see the American Military Attache, Major Langhorne,
who was away on a sightseeing tour near Verdun, but would be back in the
morning. However, a long cross-examination had to be undergone at the
hands of the venerable Herr Chief of the Secret Field Police Bauer, who
was taking no chances at harboring an English spy in the Houptquartier
disguised as a correspondent.

I found Major Langhorne standing the strain of the campaign
[Transcriber: original 'compaign'] well, and I gathered the impression
that he intended to see the thing through, and that there was much which
America could learn from the titanic operations of the Germans.