result was discouraging to the Germans.  I remember studying the British Zeppelin communiques with Germans.  At that time the London Authorities were constantly referring to these raids taking place in the “Eastern counties,” when the returned Germans knew exactly where they had been.  The result was great encouragement.  Nothing did more to depress the Germans than the humorous and true accounts of the Zeppelin raids which were eventually allowed to appear in the English newspapers.

The Germans have now facts as to the actual damage done in England.  They know that the British public receive the Zeppelins with excellent aircraft and gun-fire.  They know that anti-aircraft preparations are likely to increase rather than decrease, and while, for the sake of saving the nation’s “face,” it will be necessary that Zeppelins be further used, the people who are directing the war know that, so far as land warfare is concerned, they are not a factor.

There have been more mishaps than have been published; more wounded and damaged Zeppelins than the Germans have ever announced.  I was informed that the overhauling and repair of many Zeppelins after a successful or unsuccessful raid was a matter, not of days, but of weeks.  There was great difficulty in obtaining crews.  Most of them are sailors, as are the officers.  There have been suppressed mutinies in connection with the manning of the Zeppelins.

Count Zeppelin, who, up to a year ago, was a national hero, is already regarded by a large section of the population as a failure.  The very house servants who subscribed their pfennigs and marks in the early days to help conduct his experiments now no longer speak of him with respect.  They have transferred their admiration to Hindenburg and the submarines.

The majority of Germans of all classes believe what they are officially instructed to believe, no more, no less.  The overmastering self-hypnotism which leads the present-day German to believe that black is white, if it adds to his self-satisfaction, is one of the most startling phenomena of history.  But what of Ballin, Heineken, von Gwinner, Gutmann, Thyssen, Rathenau, and other captains of industry and finance?  Some of them have expressed opinions in interviews, but what do they really think?  I am not going to indulge in any guesswork on this matter.  I am simply going to disclose some important statements made at a secret meeting attended by many of the business directors of the German Empire.  The meeting was for the purpose of discussing actual conditions in a straightforward manner, therefore no member of the Press, German or foreign, was present.

In striking contrast with custom when the war is discussed, nothing was said of Kultur, of German innocence or enemy guilt, of an early and victorious peace, of British warships hiding always in safety, or of the omniscience and infallibility of the Supreme Military Command.