lO 
Land & Water 
May 1 6, 191 8 
German Plots Exposed 
James J. F. Archibald 
By F^rench StrOther, Managing Editor, "Th= world's work,'? New York 
"I always say to these idiotic Yanlcees that they should shut their mouths and, 
better still, be full of admiration for all our heroism."— Extract from von Papen's 
F. Archibald undertook to deliver. 
letter to his wife in Berlin which James J. 
THE case of 
James J. F. 
Archibald, 
war corre- 
spondent, is another sample of the Germans' fatal 
gift for trusting a weak link in an otherwise ingenious and 
complete chain. Their "cleverness" was the cleverness of 
the cockv boy who thinks he can outwit anyone. The sad 
ending of .Archibald's career, the ignominious exposure of 
his character as a messenger for the Gennans, was simplicity 
itself. And the revelations contained in the messages he 
carried were most discreditable to the honour and the 
wisdom of the plotters in the Teutonic Embassies. 
The story begins on July 29th, 1914, six days after Austria's 
ultimatum to Serbia and three days before the formal historical 
date of the opening of the war. On that day an enterprising 
American Newspaper Syndicate telegraphed Mr. Archibald : 
Please telegraph us your terms for going to the European 
war, so that we can size up the syndicate field. As soon as 
received will try for quick action. 
The Wheeler Syndicate, Inc. 
Archibald suoii had his arrangements made, though his em- 
ployers were ignorant of the reason for the surprising ease with 
which he obtained the highest possible entree to the best pos- 
sible points of observation within the German lines. It should 
be said at once that their attitude was perfectly correct, 
and that the moment they discovered the true nature of 
his errand they discharged him by cable, on October 27th. But 
that comes later in the story. . 
Archibald was a man of true grandiose German style. Writ- 
ing to the syndicate on September 4th, he said : 
You should not confound my efforts with more than 
five hundred correspondents of every description who have 
attempted to get to the English, French, and Belgian fronts, 
none of them with any official recognition, and most of them 
without even a passport. At the hysterical beginning of 
the war, correspondents are very much in the way, but 
every cartoonist, humorist, and amateur millionaire who 
wanted a httle private excitement rushed to the front and 
embarrassed the armies in their mobihsation ; and 
naturally, they were not gladly received. I have been 
working quietly, just as I did in the Russian War, when 
I was the first and only foreign correspondent to be accepted 
after four months' waiting. 
There is no necessity of coming into conflict with any 
censors if one knows mihtary censorship as I do, for all 
they require is that you will not embarrass their present 
actual movements. "There is not one single foreign corre- 
spondent with either the German or Austrian armies, and 
it will be a great achievement to get dispatches out from 
there ; and I am positive, with the papers that I now hold, 
that there wiU be no difficulty whatever. The difficulty is 
merely in establishing one's responsibility with these 
armies, and my residence in Washington for the last ten 
years has been for that purpose alone. 
.Archibald was soon in Germany, and began sending bac 
cable dispatches to a syndicate of papers, the principal ones of 
which were the New York Times, Tribune, and World. His 
dispatches, however, were so blatantly pro-German and had so 
much more propaganda than news in them that these papers 
quickly became dissatisfied. For example, the Times cut out 
of one of his dispatches a large section of fulsome eulogy of the 
German Government. Imagine their astonishment the next 
morning to receive a telephone call from Captain Boy-Ed, 
Naval Attache of the German Embassy with offices in New 
York. Captain Boy-Ed demanded the reason for the omission 
of these paragraphs. The Times naturally demanded Captain 
Boy-Ed's source of information that such paragraphs existed. 
It soon developed that Boy-Ed was receiving direct from Ger- 
many duplicates of all the material that Archibald was cabling 
for publication. As soon as the American newspapers under- 
stood this situation they declined to proceed further. In the 
same spirit and simultaneously the Wheeler Syndicate "fired" 
Mr. Archibald by cable and wrote him a stinging letter from 
which the following two paragraphs may be quoted : 
Perhaps because of the nature of your stuff, at any rate, 
we have to face the veiled insinuation that you are in the 
pay of the German and Austrian Governments. In this 
connection, we have been told that the German and Austrian 
Ambassadors to this country have received in skeleton form 
the several vrireless^dis • 
patches you sent to us 
addressed care the 
Times. We think you 
should know this, and also know that, with the nature of 
your dispatclies such as they were, we dared not allow our- 
selves, by continuing the service, to be laid open to the 
charge that we were in the employ of the German and 
Austrian Governments. So for this reason we had to terminate 
the service. 
We have instructed the Times not to accept any more 
wireless dispatches from you, and the wireless company 
h£ts been notified that no dispatches will be accepted. 
Nothing daunted by these rebufis, Archibald continued his 
exploits as "war correspondent," interspersing his labours at 
the front with voyages back to the United States, ostensibly to 
deliver lectures. The true character of his movements stands 
revealed in a letter Archibald received from Bernstorf^, the 
Geripan Ambassador, a few days before he embarked on the 
voyage from New York which was to be his last. This letter 
was written from Bernstorii's summer home at Cedarhurst, 
Long Island, on August 19th, 1915, and reads : 
Dear Mr. Archibald, 
I send you herewith the two letters of recommendation 
asked for, and hope that they will be useful to you. I 
learn with pleasure that you wish once again to letum to 
Germany and Austria as you have interceded for our concerns 
here so courageously and successfully. 
With best compUments, 
Yours very sincerely, ^ 
Bernstorff. 
One of these letters was as follows : 
The German Frontier Custom Authorities are requested 
to kindly give to the bearer of this letter, Mr. James J. F. 
Archibald, from New York, who is going to Germany with 
photographic apparatus, etc., in order to collect material 
for lectures in the United States in the interests of Germany, 
all possible faciUties compatible with regulations in the 
dispatching of his luggage. 
Bernstorff. 
Imperial Ambassador. 
The familiar story of what happened next is that Archibald 
carried some secret documents for Bernstorff and Dumba in a 
hollow cane. This could scarcely be, for the documents lie 
carried were so numerous and some of them so bulky that the 
cane would need to be a giant's walking stick. In any event 
the documents themselves are of more interest than their 
vehicle. They were taken from Archibald by the British 
authorities at Falmouth. The series can be best introduced 
from a letter from the Austro-Hungarian Ambassador in 
Washington, Dumba, to his chief. Count Burian, Minister 
for Foreign Affairs in Vienna, which reads : 
My Lord, 
Yesterday evening Consul-Genera von Nuber received 
the enclosed aide memoire from the chief editor of the locally 
known paper Szabodsog, after a previous conference with 
him, and in pursuance of his proposals to arrange for strikes 
in the Bethlehem Schwab steel and munitions war factory, 
and also in the Middle West. 
Dr. Archibald, who is well known to your lordship, leaves 
to-day at 12 o'clock on board the Rotterdam, for Berlin 
and Vienna. I take this rare and safe opportunity to 
warmly recommend the proposal to your lordship's favour- 
able consideration. 
It is my impression that we can disorganise and hold up 
for months, if not entirely prevent, the manufacture of 
munitions in Bethlehem and the Middle West, which, in 
the opinion of the German military attach^, is of great 
importance, and amply outweighs the expenditure of money 
involved. 
But even if strikes do not come ofi, it is probable that 
we should extort, under the pressure of the crisis, more 
favourable conditions of labour for our poor, down-trodden 
fellow-countrymen. In Bethlehem these white slaves are 
now working for twelve hours a day, and seven days a 
week. All weak persons succumb and become consumptives. 
So far as German workmen are found among the skilled 
hands, a means of leaving will be provided for them. 
Beside this, a private German registry office has been 
established which provided employment for persons who 
have voluntarily given up their places, and is already 
