1900] Prussians in Tientsin 



The buildings of the University of Tientsin, an 

 American foundation, were used as barracks. An 

 Englishwoman whose house was temporarily occupied 

 by German officers afterward found molasses poured 

 between the dresses she had carefully packed away 

 in a chest. One night Herbert Hoover missed his The 

 milk cow; accompanied then by three or four Ameri- 

 can and English friends and a Chinese servant 

 leading the lowing calf, he went along the street, 

 feeling sure that the disconsolate mother would 

 respond to the call of her offspring. This in fact she 

 did, loudly and unmistakably. But the German 

 officers quartered on the premises at first stoutly 

 denied harboring any cow at all. Forced at last to 

 admit the truth, they said that cow and calf should 

 no longer be separated and kept them both! It has 

 been frequently noticed that the phrase noblesse oblige 

 has no synonym in the Junker tongue. 



While in Europe in 1910, I learned that after the 

 return of Waldersee, one Herr Kiihnert of Halle 

 ventured to assert that the contingent had been 

 guilty of atrocities in China. Brought before the 

 court for trial, his defense was that he had said that 

 'the allied armies, of which our soldiers were a part," 

 committed certain atrocities. According to my last 

 information Kiihnert had been three weeks in jail, 

 but the decision of the higher court never reached me. 1 



Venturing to discuss the above matters with Dr. 

 Otto Seeck of the University of Miinster, a distin- 

 guished professor of History, 2 I elicited only a brief 



1 This incident impressed me at the time as throwing a strong sidelight on 

 Prussian methods. Seven years later, the administration of the " Defense of 

 the Realm Act" (familiarly known in England as "Dora") and our own "Espi- 

 onage Act" showed plainly that in time of stress other nations do not scruple 

 to override civil liberty. See Chapter LIV, page 750. 



2 See Chapter xxxvn, page 324. 



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