AMERICAN SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

Evening Star, Issue 16469, 6 July 1917, Page 5

AMERICAN SIDELIGHTS ON THE WAR

iJroii Our San Francisco Correspondeni.]

ROOSEVELT’S MILITARY ASPIRATIONS.

The Capitol at Washington has presented to Americans in tho past ftw weeks the saddest and most humiliating spectacle in American history, in the opinion of leading thinkers outside political circles m the United States. Groups of what America terms “ peanut ” politicians have striven witli might and main to discredit the magnanimous spirit which has marked Roosevelt’s declaration of* his willingness to render service to heroic France. Possessed and. overwhelmed by a fear • that the prestige which would be his from this service might prove an uncombatablo polielement four years hence at the next Presidential election, these small “fries” have desecrated their respectful positions by attempting to frustrate every jplan which would havo made *possible Roosevelt’s entrance • into tire European conflagration. Their actions have nauseated the American people, and havo naturally merited the emphatic condemnation that the people at largo have heaped upon these triflers who are overridden with red tape and fear for “Teddy’s” ever-growing popularity. In a great crisis such as confronts America to-dav it is exceedingly trying to* have to tolerate such invertebrates, who pose as the representatives of tho virile, courageous, ana democratic American nation. It was to havo been hoped that in these intensifying moments all men in public as well as private life would have risen superior to any pettiness that might have animated their small “hides,” as one critic termed it. This spokesman for the American nation added : “ But we have erred. There they are assembled, conniving and indulging in stunts which hamper and detract from America’s desire to assist these war-tired nations into coming into possession of principles which will make for .further security and governmental stability. May they live to feel the tide of retribution.” ROOSEYELT EXPLAINS.

Colonel Roosevelt, who has been greatly chagrined at the Presidential rebuff levelled at him for his patriotic offer, in a long statement called upon the .men who had volunteered for his proposed division to France to immediately disband, and he advised them to get to the front tlio best way they could. If they were unable to secure places in service abroad, he suggested that they might devote their energies to aiding America at home. Roosevelt himself was not anxious to' accept the position at the head of the New York .National Guard—with the rank of major-general—offered him by Governor Whitman. In the course of his statement Roosevelt said; “To the men who have volunteered for immediate service on the firing lino in the divisions which Congress authorised, the President dent has announced that he will decline to permit these divisions to be organised or to permit me to have a command in connection with such a force. After consultation with some of the men who had volunteered to raise units—regiments and battalions—for the division, it was decided unanimously that the only course open to us is forthwith to disband and abandon all further effort in connection with the division. The men who have volunteered will now consider themselves absolved from all further connection with this movement. The funds that have been promised will be treated as withdrawn, and applied to other purposes. “ If my offer immediately to raise four divisions for the front had been accepted, the various units of the -first division would to-morrow begin to assemble at whatever points the War Department indicated, and they would have assembled in full force and without an hour’s delay. Fifteen days afterwards the second diviwould have mobilised ,in similar fashion, and then, at intervals of 50 days, the other divisions. All four divisions would have sailed, and two would have been on the firing line by September 1, the time at which the Secretary of War has announced the assembling of the selective army to begin. DENIES ’TWAS-POLITICS, iho President alludes to our proposed action as one that would have an effect ‘ politically,’ but as not contributing to the ‘ success of the war,’ and as representing ‘a policy of personal gratification dr advantage.’ I deny respectfully but emphatically that any political consideration whatever, or any desire for personal gratification or advantage, entered into our calculations. The President savs, in effect, that to comply with our offer would be mischievous from a military standpoint, and lie adds that the regular officers whom I asked to have associated with me are ‘ some of the most effective officers of the regular- army,’ who ‘cannot possibly bo spared from * the duty of training troops. One of the chief qualifications military command is to choose from one’s associates and subordinates the most effective officers, and this qualification the President thus states that I possess. '■

( “-As for my withdrawing them from the much_ more pressing and necessary duty or training 1 the troops, I wish to point out that- I had asked about 50 regular officers, from lieutenant-colonels to second lieutenants, for tho first division. This would bo only about a tenth of the number who will go with General Pershing's division, which the President annmmces°is to he composed exclusively of regulars. It has been stated tliat regular army officers are opposed to our plan. As a matter of fact, the ‘ most effective ’ fighting officers have been eager to he connected with or have under them the troops we propose to raise. The President condemns our proposals on the ground that ‘ undramatic ’ action is needed, action that is ‘practical aud of scientific definiteness and precision.’ 1 hero was nothing dramatic in our proposal, save las all proposals indicating eagerness or willingness to sacrifice life for an ideal are dramatic.” HARD BLOW FOR “TEDDY.” About the hardest blow in the controversy was that delivered by Senator Stone, who, defending tho President, asserted that Roosevelt, in the battle of San Juan, got lus regiment into an almost inexplicable mess, and _ the whole party would have been annihilated had not a negro regiment providentially rushed in and caved the situation, thereby rescuing the Rooseveltian detachment. He was afraid Teddy might repeat tho blunder should ho be allowed to take an expeditionary force to France for service. Despite this senatorial broadside Roosevelt remains the most popular private individual in America. The Presidential rebuff seems only to have added impetus to his growing favor throughout the country for having offered to freelv sacrifice his life in the cause of humanity m these closing days of a most strenuous public career.

GIRDING AT THE PRESIDENT. America is moving, and America is in earnest. Neither fear nor vainglory is Uie impelling motive, but a gradually deepening sense of what is at stake to be nobly won -or meanly lost,” in Lincoln s phrase. He called it “tho last, best hope on earth,” meaning thereby human freedom' and the full enjoyment of liberty by every nation. Thai something corresponduig to this i s involved in the struggle upon which America has entered tho plain people of the United States are now well convinced. They see a chance to strike down military autocracy and to secure a peace which .shall bo Lasting because established by the free consent of self-governed peoples. It is for these objects that Americans are willing to endure all accessary hardships, holding nothinoback. And to prophets of evil who talk of possible defeat in the high emprise of hazardous undertaking they would say as the final indication of their good hope’ in the words of Coleridge : “Do you ask us to believe that this world is governed by the Devil?” While these croakers were moaning over America’s supposed dilatoriness in her participation in the European war, the startling news trickled through that a squadron of United States warships had arrived in' British waters, and were then co-operating with British torpedo-destroyers seeking the elusive assassins of tho sea and their death-dealing submarines. While the jingoists of the Yankee Press were shouting off their

heads of fancied slowness of Uncle Sam, the country’s action of despatcliing warships abroad had been proceeding without announcement or any kind of fuss, and it gave the croakers a decided setback. FACTS ABOUT CAPTURED SUBMARINES. All possible shadow of doubt as to the fate of the German suporsubmereible Deutschland has now been removed, for she now lies safely in Plymouth Harbor, whither she was forcibly- taken bv the British authorities.- The Deutschland’s sistership the Bremen, which started for America before the Deutschland, was captured in the North Sea, and haa since been moored in an obscure town in the FirUi of Forth ; and 147 German war submarines that have been taken since- the beginning or the "war are lying iu Plymoutih Harbor. This information was brought to San Francisco on jMay 26 by Mr Colwyn Jenkins, of Sydney, Australia, managing director of Robertson and Young, Ltd., the well-known import, and export firm of the Antipodes, with houses and Melbourne. Air Jenkins, who arrived m the Californian metropolis direct from London via Liverpool and New Aork, was on his way homo to Australia. Threo weeks previously, from tho deck of the Cunard liner on which he and a party the military members of the British War Mission to America were passengers, he witnessed the destruction of a German _ submarine, which was accomplished in a manner that indicates in at least one respect the British method that is diminishing tho effectiveness of the divers of the assassins of the sea. “We were about eighty miles west of tho coast of Ireland when wo sighted what fust seemed to be a British destroyer coming at ua full epeed. As it came nearer it was recognised as a German submarine running on the surface. It was of extraordinary -S' 2o - ’The captain of tho Cunarder ordered tho crew of the 6in gun to hold their fire until tho diver came within two miles. Meantime a groy-paintod, two-funnelled ship that looked like a merchantman, but which proved to bo a converted British ermser, hove in sight and bore down on tho German from astern. Evidently the latter, which was making for us, did. not see the cruiser. Suddenly wo saw five puffs of smoke from the deck of the cruiser, lollowed by five sharp reports. /Evidently all five shells found the mark, for the diver was literally blown out of the water. A column of water, smoke, and flames shot into the air 100 ft. Tho submarine sank instantly'. The Britisli cruiser came up and circled the spot for 20 minutes, looking for survivors, but there was none. After standing by the spot whore the German went down the cruiser signalled us to proceed on our course. The cruiser turned and went whence she came. . It all happened mid-afternoon of a fine spring day, with a calm sea. Plainly it is getting to be tough nailing for tho submarine that attacks in daylight.” Mr Jenkins, who enjoyed confidential relations with certain Government officials in I,ondon, also told of tho circumstances of the torpedoing of the freighter Medina. ** The sinking of the Medina resulted from tho blunder of some incompetent official whom the people of England will never forgive,” he said. “ The ship carried a cargo of wheal, meat, and 'other foodstuffs from Australia, valued at 1,500,000 dollars. She had reached Plymouth safely, and was ready to discharge," when an official decided it would be more convenient to discharge her at another port, and go ordered. ’The Medina, had proceeded just 30 miles from Plymouth when a torpedo got her. This waste of ship and valuable cargo caused an outburst of indignation throughout the country.” ARMY OF GERMAN SPIES IN UNITED STATES.

Scores of arrests of German secret service spies throughout the United States and the collapse of the Kaiser’s system of espionage in America, operated at huge expense since the outbreak of the European war, are imminent as the result of a coup organised by Uncle Sam’s secret service. This is the news that trickled from the Federal headquarters of the West in Sitir Francisco. After several months of nationwide investigation, conducted with a secrecy that insured success, in which the pick of the Government's investigators were engaged in every State and in Mexico, tho_ operations of every branch of the Kaiser’s intelligence bureau and the identity of its legion of spies and messengers have been bared. A coup is about to he staged by Uncle Sam that will shake loose the Kaiser’s war agents and completely crumble tho machine that has directed bomb disasters before America’s entrance into the war, ami since has been gathering information for the Kaiser’s benefit on onclo Sam’s war preparations. The arrest of Rudolph Flemandingho in Los Anseles is considered, the forerunner of sensations to come. According to unimpeachable Sources, Flamenclinghe is known to be the head of tho Kaiser’s secret eervico bureau oil the Pacific Coast, and he lias been receiving daily reports, maps, and diagrams ot fortifications and information on war preparations’ from a squad of spies scattered throughout the western division. Lieutenant Frank E. Wolf, former aviator in the German army, who was arrested in the German hospital in San Francisco in the middle of Mav, disguised as a dishwasher, was a member of Flamendingbe's staff. Wolf had enlisted in tho United States army aviation corps at San Diego, Southern California, and deserted last January. Through German messengers he conveyed the result of his observations to Flamendinghe. For several months past the United States has been divided into ten divisions by the German Government’s war agents, with headquarters in the large centres, where messengers reported the result of the operations of tho spies. No letters or telegrams or telephones were entrusted with the_ information conveyed to the German division “ generals.” All communications between the Kaiser’s representatives were conducted hv messengers, whose identity to the spies themselves was known only through a secret code of expression. Before tho entrance of the United States into tho war, and after ’a series of bomb depredations were committed bv German agents, Cliief William J. Flynn, of the United States secret service in Washington, secretly organised a detail of the nation’s most astute detectives, which lias been known as the “ Flying Squadron,” to copo with the plots of 'the German spies. The result of tho long investigation of Flynn’s “ sleuths ” is now ready for action, and the collapse and exposure of tho Kaiser’s espionage system are shortly due. Flamendinghe had in his possession 1.200 pounds of ekrasitc. a high explosive, which had been purchased to destrov American ships being built on the Pacific Coast, according to his own admissions. Ho was formerly first lieutenant in the “ Death’s Head ” Hussars of Prussia.

Captain H. Weber, another German spy, who has been arrested in California, was very outspoken, and gloried in the fact that ho had been in the spy service of the Kaiser for 25 years, bad fought with the Bocts to gain information regarding the British Armv ; _ had by misrepresentation got into the United States armv, and when with them on the Mexican border deserted and joined the Mexican insurrectionists. Webor has stated that ho is a friend of Consul-General Bopp, of San Francisco, and says Bopp financed and directed him for Berlin purposes. San Francisco, May 28.