On the 28th as von Bethmann-Hollweg appeared in the Reichstag, instead of facing a hostile and belligerent assembly, he faced members who were ready to support him in anything he did.  The Chancellor, however, realised that he could take some of the thunder out of the opposition by making a strong statement against England.  “Down with England,” the popular cry, was the keynote of the Chancellor’s remarks.  In this one speech he succeeded in uniting for a time at least public sentiment and the political parties in support of the Government.

A few days afterward I saw Major Bassermann at his office in the Reichstag and asked him whether the campaign for an unlimited submarine warfare would be resumed after the action of the Reichstag in expressing confidence in the Chancellor.  He said: 

“That must be decided by the Foreign Office, the Ministry of Marine and the General Staff.  England is our chief enemy and we must recognise this and defeat her.”

With his hands in his pocket, his face looking down, he paced his office and began a bitter denunciation of the neutrality of the United States.  I asked him whether he favoured the submarine warfare even if it brought about a break with the United States.

“We wish to live in peace and friendship with America,” he began, “but undoubtedly there is bitter feeling here because American supplies and ammunition enable our enemies to continue the war.  If America should succeed in forcing England to obey international law, restore freedom of the seas and proceed with American energy against England’s brutalisation of neutrals, it would have a decisive influence on the political situation between the two countries.  If America does not do this then we must do it with our submarines.”

In October I was invited by the Foreign Office to go with a group of correspondents to Essen, Cologne and the Rhine Valley Industrial centres.  In Essen I met Baron von Bodenhausen and other directors of Krupps.  In Dusseldorf at the Industrie Klub I dined with the steel magnates of Germany and at Homburg-on-the-Rhine I saw August Thyssen, one of the richest men in Germany and the man who owns one-tenth of Germany’s coal and iron fields.  The most impressive thing about this journey was what these men said about the necessity for unlimited warfare.  Every man I met was opposed to the Chancellor.  They hated him because he delayed mobilisation at the beginning of the war.  They stated that they had urged the invasion of Belgium because if Belgium had not been invaded immediately France could have seized the Rhine Valley and made it impossible for Germany to manufacture war munitions and thereby to fight a war.  They said they were in favour of an unlimited, ruthless submarine warfare against England and all ships going to the British Isles.  Their opinions were best represented in an inspired editorial appearing in the Rhieinische Westfaelische Zeitung, in which it was stated: