August 30, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
to lia\p tireless energy. He alwa^-s seems fresli and ready for 
anything. His tastes are simple"; he lives in Inxnry withnnt 
being a slave to it. He said to me once : " I'or me there are 
only two indispensable things in life, a good cigar and a good 
bed, for one must sleep well if one works hard." 
In political circles, even among his enemies, he has. an 
extraordinary reputation for independence and loyalty. 
One of the most distinguished members of one of our Allied 
Embassies in London told me four or five years ago that 
Knlilmann had ne\er told him a lie. 1 know, however, of one 
instance in which von Kuhlmann did not live up to his high 
reputation. This is the story just as it was told to me by an 
official, whose exceptional intelligence and perfect honesty 
Kuhlmann appreciated. 
Two or three years before the declaration of war, a German 
meteor appeared suddenly in the sky of .tjlie social world of 
London, and shone there with great brilliance until July 1914. 
A month before the war, this magnificent star, whose name 
was Baron vender Heydt, disappeared, and thought fit to go 
and drink the waters in a little German town, there to take 
care of his health which had suddenly suffered as a result of .so 
many festivities and pleasures. Baron von der Heydt passed 
as a voung banker who wished to found in London a brai>ch 
of his family's business house, and as his business prospered 
marvellously, he devoted all his leisure to good living in London. 
His luxurious house was the meeting place not only for dis- 
tinguished foreigners from all countries,^ but also for the best 
English society. History now know? that this delightful 
host was the connecting link between the (ierman Embassy, 
more especially Kuhlmann, and a group of English and 
foreign cliques, through which German; propaganda and 
espionage were more or less discreetly conducted. 
Detected in Deceit 
Baron von der Heydt was the enlightened patron of the 
correspondents of (rerman newspapers, and as such had a real 
influence in the foreign political circles. \ow one day the 
doings of Baron von der Heydt attracted the attention of 
one of the best known English diplomatists. \\'ishing to know 
more about the nature of the reports that were passing between 
Baron von der Heydt and the (ierman Embassy, this diplomat 
asked Kuhlmann if he knew this new arrival in the German 
colony in London. Kuhlmann, taken aback, hesitated, and 
was unwise enough to say that he did not. 
" What ' " said his companion, " vou do not know Baron 
von der Heydt. But he is one of the most brilliant and 
sympathetic personalities in German circles in London. 
He is ever^'where." 
" I do not know him," Kuhlmann repeated. 
"Well." retorted my friend, " such a state of things must 
not continue. I must certainly introduce you to Baron von 
der Heydt. I must arrange a breakfast party for you to 
meet him." 
Kuhlmann was unable to conceal his jnnoyanc?. The 
diplomat, delighted at the trick he had successfully played on 
the Councillor of the German Embassy, did not carry his 
joke any further, l.ut he told me some time ago that he would 
regret all his life that he had not introduced to Baron von 
Kuhlmann one of his principal lieutenantr. 
This little incident proves two things. Firstly that Kuhl- 
mann, in spite of his good qualities, has the faults of his 
race, that he has no tact or subtlety, and that, like all Gefmans, 
he is an enthusiastic adept in this game of espionage in all its 
forms, which is one' of the off-shoots of Gennan culture. 
Kuhlmann was extraordinarily well informed. He had 
his emissaries all over the world. He knew better than any- 
one else how fo give valuable information to English reporters, 
and journalists were sure to find a delightful welcome at the 
Chancellory of the German Embassy where the Councillor 
himself would receive them with warmth and cordiality. 
One realised the hidden po\<er that the great chief of Ger- 
man ])ropaganda in En.gland exercised when, on the day 
of the declaration of war, he managed to pass into the JVcsl- 
minsler Gazelle an interview which has become famous, and 
the sole result of which, fortunately, was to make Baron von 
Kuhlmann ridiculous, and to lead to his being christened 
by the London newspapers, " the funny man." The noble 
baron used fo try to persuade public opinion that the inten- 
tions of Germany were absolutely pure as far as England was 
concerned, and that England had nothirtg but advantage to 
gain from continuing her friendship with the Kaiser. Kuhl- 
mann also used to make a point of having close and friendly 
relationships with foreign journalists. His intermediarv' 
was Baron von der Heydt, who used to collect at his house at 
his mcjst interesting dinner parties, not xinly correspondents 
of the German press, but also those of other countries, 
Kuhlmann in I-ondon was going through the apprentice- 
ship of the profession he has since practised with much 
success in Holland. His method is to surround himself 
with a first class body of informers, and to give to the 
Press of the coimtry where he is, and of neighbouring countries, 
the information that serves his own purpose, presented with 
an air of innocence that would disarm the most suspicious. 
He is, in fact, a model of the ultra-modern diplomat. 
He knows that in a well organised country effective 
government depends on two essential instruments, a 
docile press and a sound system of police. With the one you 
impose your opinions on the mass of individuals, and with 
the other you render powerless to injure you those few per- 
sons who refuse to be convinced by arguments that are 
sufficient to carry the crowd. 
The Agadir Crisis 
But if Baron von Kuhlmann naa only those two qualities 
of the Prussian statesman, we might then regard his rise to 
power without great uneasiness. However, he has already 
proved since his sojourn in London, that this more or less 
mechanical part of his method of governing was only on a 
par with the rest of his policy. The new Foreign Minister 
has a wider conception of the true interests of his race. All 
the resources of corruption and of the iron hand are only 
auxiliary instruments in the service of a great idea. The 
future of the German Empire seems to him to lie in the un- 
limited economic effort isi this prolific and hard-working 
people, whose amamcnts exist only to levy blackmail on the 
rest of the world. Kuhlmann was one of the instigators of 
the Agadir crisis, and the policy of threats was the one which 
he believed would serve his country best. But for nothing 
in the world would he ha\-e wished that a single shot should 
have been fired. 
Kuhlmann's plan at the time of the Agadir crisis was to 
intimidate France and to obtain, by bluffing and without 
striking a blow, economic advantages and certain concessions 
of territory. His object would have been quite genuinely 
defeated if war had broken out. This was his own policy up 
till Augu.st 1914. In that August he said to a friend of mine — 
" I can speak to you to-day as one man to another. I shall 
tell you frankly what I think. Whatever maybe the result, 
war is a criminal blunder for Germany. If we had had ten 
more years of peace, we would be masters of the world with- 
out having to shed one drop of blood." 
I am convinced that Baron von Kuhlmann thinks to-day 
as he thought three years jigo. He will make peace as soon as 
events permit him to do so. He has an unbounded confidence 
in the profound resources of the German race ; his only desire 
is to recommence the work to which he and his friends, the 
great capitalists, the great leaders of industry, had 'devoted 
themselves twenty years ago, and which can be resumed along 
two lines, economic conquest of the world based on the threat 
of Germany's military power. Fortunately for us the junkers 
defeated the commercial interests, and the war has opened our 
eyes, let us hope for ever. 
Kuhlmann is a practical man ; he will concede to the Allies 
empty honours and even political advantages. I should not 
be at all surprised if he gave up Alsace Lorraine, perhaps even 
Poland, provided that Germany, or more precisely the Central 
Empires, obtain economic compensations. He will be the con- 
vinced and even loyal upholder of a peace witbout bitterness. 
He will -shake hands cordially with his enemies of- yesterday 
on condition that his one nightmare is destroyed, namely, 
• the economic boycott of Germany after the war. He knows 
that in a relatively short time the German people, if all 
the markets of the world are open to them, and its com- 
mercial travellers can go freely in the allied countries, will 
regain slowly but surely, the place they had occupied before 
the war in the industrial and economic life of the whole 
world. A peace without bitterness will allow the Germans to 
recreate their army, to augment their fleet, which they call 
commercial ; even if deprived of some of her provinces a 
Germany conquered on the field of battle will triumph through 
peace ; for its workers, -its chemists, its capitalists, united 
in a common ideal of industrial pan-Germanism, will work night 
and day to reconstruct and renovate their fathedand, and in 
\ 30, 40, or 50 years, our descendants will be faced by a Germany 
that has learnt bv experience, and will next time know how 
to use its cbmmercial victories. 
Such, let us make no mistake about it, is the precise scheme 
of this man who is above all things, practical. He will have 
behind him his whole country, for German Socialists are, above 
all, socialists in the interests of Germany, and his democracy 
has no sympathy with demagogy. 
What" sort of statesmen have the Allies to oppose during 
and after peace negotiations to Baron von Kuhlmann, this 
young, active, energetic man, who knows every question from 
top to bottom, who is thoroughly trained in business, and who 
knows beforehand exactly what must be retained in every 
sphere and what may be sacrificed .' 
