ected with the so-called American organisation, the League of
Truth, which was engaged in a violent propaganda against America
inside Germany, I was obliged to bear the expense personally.

South of the Rio Grande the Germans are working against us, doing
their best to prejudice the Mexicans against the United States,
playing upon old hatreds and creating new ones and, in the
meantime, by their purchase of properties and of mines creating a
situation that will constitute for us in the future a most
difficult and dangerous problem.

The Germans cannot understand why we do not take advantage of
conditions in Mexico in order to conquer and hold that unfortunate
country. They could not believe that we were actuated by a spirit
of idealism and that we were patiently suffering much in order
really to help Mexico. They could not believe that we were
waiting in order to convince not only Mexico but the other States
of Central America and the great friendly republics of South
America, that it was not our policy to use the dissensions and
weakness of our neighbours to gain territory.

On one occasion before the war I and several other Ambassadors
were dining with the Kaiser and after dinner the conversation
turned to the strange sights to be seen in America. One of the
Ambassadors, I think it was Cambon, said that he had seen in
America whole houses being moved along the roads, something of a
novelty to European eyes where the houses, constructed of brick
and stone, cannot be transported from place to place like our
wooden frame house. The Emperor jokingly remarked: "Yes, I am
sure that the Americans are moving their houses. They are moving
them down towards the Mexican border."

CHAPTER XXI

EN ROUTE HOME--KAISERISM IN AMERICA

Our party was so numerous that we were compelled to charter a
special train to take us from Madrid to La Coruna, the port in
the extreme northwestern corner of Spain from which the _Infanta
Isabela_ was to sail.

Just before the train started, a Spanish gentleman from the
Foreign Office, who had courteously come to see us off, said to
me, "Do you know you have a Duke as engineer?" "The Duke of
Saragossa is going to take out your train." So we ran forward to
the engine and I shook hands with the Duke who was in blue
overalls.

This Duke of Saragossa, Grandee of Spain, often drives the engine
of the King's train. Why he engineered our train I do not know,
unless it was because of the ru