It is stated by the Vorwarts that £50,000 in subscriptions
has already been promised from leading armament firms, the Vulkan Company, and other companies which build warships, and the Foreign Office is now asked to make a further subscription and empower all Germany's ambassadors, Ministers, and consuls abroad to enlist support on its behalf. The authenticity of the letter, which was marked "Private," has not been denied, but it is admitted that the scheme is seriously prejudiced by the revelation of its aims. These "European letters" must lose their efficacy once their origin is clearly recognized. It would be interesting to know whether any English newspapers accepted the invitation to publish these letters, subsidized by armament firms, as impartial informa- tion. If so, we can only say that they planned to treat their readers with impertinence and the interests of their country with something worse than carelessness. The Times corre- spondent who deals with the scheme in the issues of Tuesday and Wednesday, notes that the Chauvinist Post remarks " to us Germans the idea of winning influence upon the foreign press is not new." Indeed, Herr Bassermann asserts that the newspapers of East Asia, British India, Turkey, Russia, England, South America, and Africa are already practically enlisted in Germany's service. As the correspondent observes, "It is, indeed, high time that it should be more generally recognized how far this influence extends." In brief, the tactics of Bismarck in using the press go on as merrily as ever, though one would think that the revelations of Busch would have cured the greenhorns for ever.
