marines occupied Vera Cruz similar instances
of sniping were frequent. Our men did not, however, burn, kill, rape,
and pillage. They were forced to fire at the custom-house because it
was occupied by snipers and in so doing they incidentally damaged the
tower of the building. After the fighting was over, the Americans felt
such regret for even this necessary bit of destruction that they
rebuilt what their shells had damaged. Their only retaliatory action
was to shoot snipers when they were caught red-handed.

* * * * *

_Monday, December 7th._ The German infantry, after spending a
certain length of time at the front, are given a vacation and sent
home. I could not ascertain the exact length of their stay in the
trenches although it seems to be about a month. The artillery stay
continuously on the battle-line as their work is less arduous and
nerve-racking, since they are always somewhat toward the rear and
usually well housed. Moreover, they fire only occasionally and have
long periods of inactivity. The cavalry spends one week in action and
then one week in the rear, some ten or fifteen miles behind the
firing-line.

Recently I had a long conversation with a German statesman of
ambassadorial rank, who spoke with intense feeling of the plight of
the thousands of German subjects, men, women, and children, who had
been caught in France at the opening of the war and interned in
detention camps. He said: "It is ridiculous for the French to suspect
any of these people of being spies, for German spies are not weak or
unprotected, but strong, picked men and women, highly trained to make
technical observations. In the present scientific age untechnical
observations are valueless. When I was Minister Plenipotentiary at
---- there were many thousands of German subjects in that city and
not one of them could have given me information of any possible
value to our great General Staff. German spies in France are neutral
or French in nationality, or pretend to be such, and they all carry
unimpeachable papers. For a man to admit frankly and openly that he is
a German is proof enough that he is not a spy. We in Germany recognize
this and do not shut up alien enemies who frankly announce their
nationality."

It was not fitting that I should enter into diplomatic discussion with
a high German official, but if I had been talking as man to man, I
could have reminded him that the spy panic which seized Par