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s hp Volume State Library BREAKING THE SILENCE "To sin by silence when we should protest, Makes cowards out of men. The human race Has climbed on protest. Had no voice been raised Against injustice, ignorance and lust, The Inquisition yet would serve the law, And guillotines decide our least disputes. The few who dare must speak, and speak again, To right the wrongs of many" Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/breakingsilenceeOOthom T. ST. JOHN GA1TNEY BREAKING THE SILENCE /VVVVVVVVVVVVtt/VVVVWl^^ ENGLAND, IRELAND WILSON AND THE WAR BY T. St. John Gaffney ILLUSTRATED vvvvi\wivt\vwvi\vv/\/iv^ HORACE LIVERIGHT NEW YORK INC. COPYRIGHT, I 93 0, BY HORACE LIVERIGHT, MANUFACTURED IN THE U. S. A. TO MY WIFE FANNIE HUMPHREYS GAFFNEY Several of the chapters and pictures in this book have appeared in The Progres- sive Magazine of Chicago, the article deal- ing WITH THE ACTrVITIES OF MESSRS. LANSING AND SCOTT ON THE ENTENTE COMMISSION OF FIFTEEN, PRINTED IN THE APPENDDC, WAS published in Current History Magazine in MARCH, 1930. THE AUTHOR EXPRESSES HIS THANKS TO THESE PUBLICATIONS FOR THEIR PERMISSION TO USE THE MATERIAL. VVV\V\l\VV\\VVV\\VV\\\V\\VV\VV\\\\\\V\V\"V\VVVV\V-v\V\\VVA,\\VV INTRODUCTION £1 0 MUCH of the literature concerning the "World War by American authors has dealt with purely technical military and diplomatic phases, or has been so one-sided and biased in its philosophical tendency, that Mr. St. John Gaffney's mem- oirs of the hectic events through which he lived while American Consul General at Munich during the war comprise a record at once unique, individual and rich within the meaning of what newspaper men describe as "the human interest element." There has been a crying need for a book by an American writer setting forth the truth of what took place during those days of anxious suspense when the British and French had cut Germany off from all contact with this country through a monopoly of the Atlantic cable service and were terrifying the heart of America in the early days of the war with harrowing accounts of American tourists mowed down with machine guns and American women made the playthings of drunken German officers on their way to the front. Mr. Gaffney in a most work- manlike manner has torn the veil of secrecy from these fantastic mysteries which, thanks to the self-imposed censorship of the metropolitan press upon all news favorable to the Central Powers, have remained mysteries to this day. If it should be insinuated against his work that it bears marks of partisanship, it should be clearly understood that Mr. Gaffney has not a drop of German blood in his veins. More- vii viii INTRODUCTION over, prior to the World "War he was held in such high esteem by those whose policies and proceedings he subjects to critical scrutiny in these pages that he received the insignia of the Legion of Honor from France and the Officers' Cross of Leo- pold II from Belgium, for friendly services to those countries. He cannot, therefore, be charged with undue prejudice against those States. In 1905 he was nominated by President Roosevelt to be American Consul General at Dresden; in 1908 he was reappointed by President Taft and subsequently promoted to Munich by President Wilson. How impartially he discharged the duties of his office dur- ing the critical days of his incumbency is substantially at- tested by the fact that when the British government and press bitterly attacked him in a spirit of bullying arrogance, amount- ing almost to a challenge of our sovereignty, the British colony in the Bavarian capital, including the British Relief Committee and the sister of Sir Arthur Nicolson, then permanent Under Secretary of the British Foreign Office, protested against the aspersions cast upon him and complimented him on the correct- ness of his course of action. The Entente nations were particularly vindictive in their attacks on those who were opposed to the program of war—wit- ness the assassination of that good man Jaures in France for raising his influential voice against the war-makers—and after America entered the struggle on the side of the Entente, our country fairly excelled her allies in suppressing free speech and a free press. A notable instance in this record is the case of the author of this book. He has, however, had the consolation of living to see the views he held sixteen years ago (and has, I may say, heroically advocated ever since) now upheld by the leading statesmen and historians of all the principal countries concerned in the war. After his enforced resignation from the consular service in October, 1915, by order of President Wilson, Mr. Gaffney INTRODUCTION ix devoted himself, heart and soul, with voice and pen, to the object of bringing about a negotiated peace and to arousing the German peoples and those of the neutral States to the cause of Irish freedom. In these efforts he associated himself with Sir Roger Casement during the Irish leader's visit to Germany, and in the same cause attended the International Socialist Peace Con- ference in Stockholm in the summer of 1917. In the meantime, in 1915 and 1916, he paid visits to the United States, crossing on neutral vessels. The country was still nominally neutral, and Mr. Wilson was making his campaign for re-election on the seductive parole, "He kept us out of war!" His presence on neutral ships, however, did not protect the author nor his property from the robbery of his papers and other effects at the hands of English officials at Portsmouth and Kirkwall. His treatment forms one of the graphic episodes of his remarkable recital. A number of the chapters herein embodied were printed in The Progressive Magazine during my editorial direction. I may, therefore, modestly claim that to my urgent persuasion of the author to commit his extraordinary experiences to paper and have them printed, this book owes its inspiration. Frederick Franklin Schrader New York City, October 10, 19} 0. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION vii i. THE AMERICAN PRESS IN THE WAR 3 n. EXCITING DAYS IN MUNICH 17 m. THE AMERICAN COLONY REFUTES WAR LIES . 26 iv. AMERICAN RED CROSS HOSPITAL IN MUNICH 38 v. MY TRIP TO LONDON IN 1914 49 vi. MY TRIP TO BELGIUM 61 vn. MY TRIP TO LOUVAIN IN 1915 72 vni. A NEW YORK WORLD INTERVIEW 82 ix. RESIGNATION FROM THE CONSULAR SERVICE 8 8 x. A REMARKABLE LETTER TO AMBASSADOR GERARD 103 XL THE AMAZING CONDUCT OF WALTER HINES PAGE, WILSON'S AMBASSADOR IN LONDON . 113 xii. THE MISSION OF SIR ROGER CASEMENT TO GERMANY 121 xm. I MAKE A PILGRIMAGE TO THE UNITED STATES IN NOVEMBER, 1915 130 xiv. MY VISIT TO THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE ... 144 xv. THE LAST DAYS OF CASEMENT IN BERLIN ... 15 5 xvi. I TRAVEL AGAIN TO THE UNITED STATES ... 166 xvii. MY EXPERIENCES IN THE UNITED STATES DUR- ING THE NATIONAL ELECTION 180 xvra. THE GERMAN-IRISH SOCIETY 190 xix. THE STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST PEACE CONFERENCE (1917) AND THE IRISH QUESTION 202 xx. OUR ARRIVAL IN STOCKHOLM 216 xxi. THE AUTHOR'S EXPULSION FROM SWEDEN RE- QUESTED BY LANSING 228 xxn. PASSPORTS DIFFICULTIES 242 xxra. THE TREATMENT OF AMERICAN CITIZENS AND AMERICAN PROPERTY IN GERMANY DURING THE WAR 261 xxiv. MY TRIP ON THE S.S. MONGOLIA TO THE UNITED STATES IN SEPTEMBER, 1920 273 xxv. THE TRADE OF FALSEHOOD: HOW THE EN- TENTE DEBAUCHED THE PUBLIC OPINION OF THE WORLD 284 xxvi. THE WAR GUILT THESIS 302 APPENDICES 321 \vvv\\v\v\vvvv\\\\\\\vvv\\\v\\\vvv\vvvv\\\v\\v\vv\vvvvvvv\v ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND AND FAMILY (1912) 12 NURSES OF THE AMERICAN HOSPITAL IN MUNICH 38 THE KING AND QUEEN OF BAVARIA 44 CONSUL GENERAL GAFFNEY AND VICE-CONSUL SCHUSSEL 48 SIR ROGER CASEMENT 120 FACSIMILE OF LETTER OF MANFRED DE CAR- DONNEL FINDLAY 122 SIR ROGER CASEMENT'S TRAVEL PERMIT 128 ST. JOHN GAFFNEY TAKING LEAVE OF THE QUEEN OF BAVARIA 140 SIR ROGER CASEMENT IN MUNICH, SEPT., 1915 .. 156 GERMANIA POINTS OUT TO ERIN THE PATH OF PROGRESS AND PROSPERITY 190 PACING PAGE MRS. T. ST. JOHN GAFFNEY 254 GERMANY IN THE CLUTCHES OF THE ENTENTE PROPAGANDA 286 THE BRITISH EMPIRE, 1914 292 BREAKING THE SILENCE ENGLAND, IRELAND WILSON AND THE WAR iwvwwvtwv v\\\v\\vv\\\vv\v\vvv\\\\v\\v\\vv\\\v\v\\\\\vv\v\v\vv\\\v\v\\ CHAPTER I THE AMERICAN PRESS IN THE WAR The Austrian note to Serbia is very stiff in its terms, but would not any country be angry which believed that the heir to its throne had been assassinated by a conspiracy of army officers in a neighbouring country and in further- ance of a design to detach one of its provinces from its allegiance. ... It is deeply regretted that Russia had decided to encourage Serbia to resistance to Austria. Russia's threat of war against Austria is a piece of sheer brutality. MANCHESTER GUARDIAN, JULY 25, '14 On July 31, four days before Engand declared war on Ger- many, the great conservative organ, the London Daily Telegraph, declared that it appeared to be Germany's aim to limit the area of conflict to Austria and Serbia without entangling other Powers. WHEN the great war broke out in August, 1914, I was occupying the post of Consul General of the United States in the city of Munich. I had already for about eight years served my government in the same capacity in Dres- den, the capital of the kingdom of Saxony, so that my official experience with the Imperial, Saxon and Bavarian governments extended over a period of some ten years.

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