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GERMANS IGNORANT OF WAR FACTS Count Roous amazing conditions of a pcacc that would meet the demands of the German government a peace by negotiation do not surprise persons who have been close to Germany in the last several months remarked A T Humphrey a lawyer in Chicago staying at the Washington who has just returned from a trip of seven months much of which was spent iu Switzerland The ignorance of the German people regarding actual war condi ¬ tions and the purposes of America is astounding They know absolutely nothing of the truth I had occasion frequently to interview Germans who crossed the border into Switzerland and I made it my object to find out what they knew of the true situation in every instance I found that they were profoundly ignorant They had no knowledge whatever of how the United States has progressed in its preparation for war They did not know that the German ships that were lying in the harbors had been seized and that they were now being used as transports for United States troops They were astonished when I told them that America had close to 1000000 men in France and that we were pre ¬ paring to put an army of 5000000 in the field They had been told that there were perhaps 50000 American soldiers iu France and that these were the riffraff of the army brutal rowdies untrained and irresponsible that the American government had been blurring from the beginning and was con ¬ tinuing to bluff bluffMost Most of the Germans who go into Switzerland have to obtain special passports and for the most part they are business men who are seeking recrea ¬ tion with their families from the stress of war In my judgment the time is opportune for an ex ¬ tensive propaganda in Germany and Austria and Russia such as the Germans themselves have been carrying on right here in the United States Washington Post
