Paris Peace Conf. 184.01402/18

Dr. E. E. Field to the Commission to Negotiate Peace 13

H. H. Field No. 16

Subject: Militarism and disarmament.

Militarism in Bavaria. There can be no doubting the fact that the military machine has been completely smashed in Bavaria. Bavarian soldiers can not be brought back to the discipline of former days and the soldiers themselves feel a deep antipathy even for such revolutionary armies as Noske has been able to form in the north. The only districts in regard to which I have been able to make comparisons, Saxony and Southern Baden, leave me with the conviction that the process of disintegration has gone further in Bavaria than elsewhere. As an example of a most orderly unit, I took the 39th Bavarian Reserve Division, which after the revolution kept at the head of its Soldiers’ Council a liberal minded nobleman, Capt. v. Zwehl. Even this officer who proclaimed himself a socialist and voted for Auer, had to go and was replaced by a country carpenter Roesch, with whom I had a long conversation. High officers of course deplore this situation but for a [Page 73] moment try to conceal their utter hopelessness. A perfect passion for leaving the country and seeking foreign service has seized the officers’ profession and I was overwhelmed with applications for service in the American army. The bearing of the troops in Munich is bad beyond belief. With all socialists and most liberals the situation is accepted without recrimination. In reactionary circles regret is expressed; but also here the military spirit is dead. Among other proofs of this the displays in the windows of book-sellers and the testimony of their proprietors tell the same tale. The public has no interest in military exploits and hates to be reminded of anything military. My conferences with statesmen of the most varied political standing concurred in regarding a return to the old German military system quite impossible as a political program. Coming from Switzerland, I expected to hear the Swiss militia system propounded as a substitute; but the Swiss system yields too large an army for it to be favored even by such a man as ex-Prime-Minister Dandl, who is regarded as a reactionary by the Bavarian socialists. All agree that the present army must be completely disbanded. The Secretary of State for Demobilisation, Rothisberger, with whom I had many talks and who became by the fortune of the revolution for a week commander in chief of the Bavarian army, developed at length his plans for a future army with the attributes of a police force. Quite independent of any pressure from without, Bavarian statesmen are quite ready to abandon conscription and adopt the Anglo-American voluntary system.

Disarmament of Germany. This feature formed the topic of several interviews with Col. Falkner v. Sonnenburg. This gentleman, who has had supreme command of the Bavarian press service and censorship throughout the war, claims to know tendencies of public opinion better than anyone else in Bavaria. Today he is charged with following expressions of opinion throughout the Empire and had arranged to send me a daily report and offered to discuss his verdicts with me at frequent intervals. V. S. thoroughly distrusts the Prussian spirit prevailing in Berlin and Weimar and kept pointing out to me hidden manifestations of the same. Above all he warns us not to tolerate the reconstruction of a powerful army. Give the Prussians an army and they will at once set to work to introduce all the old abuses. It is a dangerous toy for such a people to possess. We do not need it and must not be allowed to have it. A simple police force raised on the voluntary system, as in America is quite sufficient. Col. v. S. consulted a group of Bavarian experts on the matter and secured from them the estimate that for Bavaria one solitary division would suffice for all practical requirement, 7–8 divisions would be the proper quota to allow for the German Empire.

Herbert Haviland Field
  1. Transmitted to the Commission by the Minister in Switzerland under covering letter No. 272, March 24; received March 26.