has toiled indefatigably and
unremittingly upon our behalf. In his magnanimity and determination to
give a square deal all round, he has made the signal error of
accrediting the Germans with being a highly-developed, civilised, and
cultivated race.

Unfortunately for Mr. Gerard's sense of duty the German does not accept
the principles of the precept, "Do unto others as you would others
should do unto you," but has evolved a code of his own construction
which is peculiarly Teutonic--"Do unto others as you know others will
not dare or deign to do unto you!" The American Ambassador has always
responded promptly to any calls for his intercession and has ever
listened courteously and patiently to tales of woe. Whenever he has
considered the complaint to be well-founded he has spared no effort to
secure an immediate improvement in conditions. Yet it is to be feared
that many of his recommendations have never been, or have only been
partially and indifferently, carried into effect.

In his determination to hold the scales of justice evenly Mr. Gerard has
been prone to accept the German at his own valuation. Every prisoner in
Germany to-day knows from painful experience that the Teuton's word
counts for nothing; it is not worth the breath expended upon its
utterance, or the paper upon which it is written. The German is an
unprincipled liar and an unmitigated bluffer, in which art, if such it
may be called, he has become a super-master.

The German has always laughed, and still is laughing up his sleeve at
the courteous American diplomat. The imperial authorities have never
hesitated to throw dust in his eyes and to outwit him when the occasion
suited their purpose. Indeed, they scheme deliberately and unceasingly
to side-track him and to prevent the true conditions and affairs
penetrating to his knowledge.

I had one striking instance of this carefully premeditated and
unscrupulous gulling and thwarting of the American Embassy. The
accidental discovery of the circumstance that the baseless charge of
espionage levelled against me was still hanging over my head somewhat
worried me. I ascertained one exceedingly disturbing fact which was
communicated to me within the camp. Had I committed any offence, no
matter how trivial, while in the camps, I should not have been arraigned
upon that particular delinquency, but, in all probability, would have
had the original charge retrumped up against me. I learned that this was
the Germa