er, 1916, Adolph Barthmann, an American citizen, who owned the
largest shoe store in Berlin, desired to close his place of business and
go to the United States. It was impossible for him to get American shoes
because of the Allied blockade and he had decided to discontinue business
until peace was made.

Throughout the war it has been necessary for all Americans, as well as
all other neutrals, to obtain permission from the police before they
could leave. Barthmann went to Police Headquarters, and asked for
authority to go to the United States. He was informed that his passport
would have to be examined by the General Staff and that he could call for
it within eight days. At the appointed day Barthmann appeared at Police
Headquarters where he was informed by the Police Captain that upon orders
of the General Staff he would have to sign a paper and swear to the
statement that neither he nor the American firms he represented had sold,
or would sell, shoes to the Allies. Barthmann was told that this
statement would have to be sworn to by another American resident of
Berlin and that unless this was done he would not be permitted to return
to Germany after the war. Mr. Barthmann had to sign the document under
protest before his American passport was returned.

The facts in this as in the other instances which I have narrated, are in
the possession of the State Department at Washington.

When the German Government began to fear that the United States
might some day join the Allies if the submarine campaign was
renewed, it campaigned by threatening the United States with a
Russian-Japanese-German alliance after the war against England and the
United States. These threats were not disguised. Ambassador Gerard was
informed, indirectly and unofficially of course, by German financiers and
members of the Reichstag that Germany "would be forced" to make such an
alliance if the United States ever joined the Allies. As was shown later
by the instructions of Secretary of State Zimmermann to the German
Minister in Mexico City, Germany has not only not given up that idea, but
Germany now looks forward to Mexico as the fourth member of the league.

As Germany became more and more suspicious of Americans in Germany, who
were not openly pro-German, she made them suffer when they crossed the
German frontier to go to neutral countries. The German military
authorities, at border towns such as Warnemuende and Bentheim, took a
dislik