Months later, when perhaps irreparable damage had been done, the truth began to come out. The following Associated Press dispatch is significant:
"London, July 1.--Germany possessed a sound case in claiming early relief, according to reports of British officers who visited Silesia in April to ascertain economic conditions prevailing in Germany. A white paper issued tonight gives the text of their reports and the result of their investigations.
"It is said that there was a genuine shortage of foodstuffs and the health of the population had suffered so seriously that the working classes had reached such a stage of desperation that they could not be trusted to keep the peace."
One is told officially that the old régime in Russia fell "because as an autocracy it did not respond to the democratic demands of the Russian people."[54] This is an ascription to the Russian people of elevated sentiments to which they have not the shadow of a claim. The old régime fell because it did not respond to the demands of the Russian people for food. Wilhelm II fell because the Germans were hungry. It was hunger that handicapped the efforts of the Ebert-Haase government throughout its existence and it was hunger that proved the best recruiting agent for Liebknecht and the other elements that were trying to make democracy impossible in Germany. If any people with experience of hunger were asked to choose between the absolutism of Peter the Great with bursting granaries and the most enlightened democracy with empty bins, democracy would go away with its hands as empty as its bins.
[54] _War Cyclopedia_, issued by the Committee on Public Information, p. 241.
"Give us this day our daily bread" is the first material petition in the prayer of all the Christian peoples of the world, but only those who have hungered can realize its deep significance.
The fact is not generally known--and will doubtless cause surprise--that a determined effort was made by the American, French and British governments after the armistice to make first-hand independent reporting of events in Germany impossible. Assistant Secretary of State Polk followed the example of the other governments named by issuing on November 13th an order, which was cabled to all American embassies and legations abroad, prohibiting any American journalist from entering Germany. The State Department refused to issue passports to journalists desiring to go to adjoining neutral countries except upon their pledge not to enter Germany without permission. Requests for permission were either denied, or (in some instances) not even acknowledged.