File No. 763.72/3002
The Consul General at Dresden (Bergholz) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 7.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform the Department that yesterday, Sunday, I met at Meissen, a small town near Dresden, an army officer connected with the Ministry of War at Dresden, whom I have known for over two years and whom I invited to dine with me.
During a conversation, which lasted some three hours, he conveyed to me the following information: That in the first months of 1917 Germany contemplated an unrestricted use of submarine warfare; that she had been building submarines at the rate of two a week and hoped by a sudden attack with an overwhelming number of them to break through the barriers which protected the fleets of France and Italy in the hope of bringing about peace. Should the Imperial Government succeed in this and the Allies still refuse to come to terms, the Government then intended to make a final attempt to destroy the English fleet and to sink every vessel of the Entente met with. Zeppelin raids would, at the same time, be made on England nightly.
He further said that the Government expected to suffer a fearful loss in men and material, but that it would, nevertheless, carry out the plan as outlined. The blow would be made with such enormous forces that it must succeed.
He stated that the failure of the Germans to take Verdun was due to the tender compassion of the Emperor, who declined to permit of the further bombardment of the city when he learned that all the inhabitants had not left. To my suggestion that this would hardly explain the sinking of the Lusitania and a dozen other passenger ships without warning, he replied, after some hesitation, that it did not sound logical, but that it was what the Army was told.
He said that the Germans had lost in killed since the war began a million and half, that seven hundred thousand had been taken prisoners, and that three millions had been wounded but that half of this number had been able to return to duty. He further said that there were twelve million men under arms, many being engaged in garrison duty throughout Germany and in Belgium and Poland, and that there was an almost unlimited amount of men to draw upon, but he added that financially and economically Germany could hold out but two years longer.
How much of this information is reliable I cannot, of course, say, but I give it as it was told to me.
I have [etc.]