Note 2 — Chapter II

I have been informed by American officials on duty in Berlin that they have never observed any misstatement of fact, or any essential omission in the communiqués of the German Government. This, during my brief visits within the borders of the Empire, was certainly borne out by my own experience. Defeats are announced as automatically as victories. An illustration of the advantageous effect of this procedure upon public morale and of the disadvantageous effect of the opposite occurred after the Battle of the Marne. The French, who should logically have gained the greatest encouragement, had so learned to distrust their official communiqués, that they gained no advantage of this kind whatsoever, while the Germans, who ought to have received no moral stimulus from so material a disaster, underwent a fresh accroissement of their patriotic determination as a result of the frank announcement that the war was no longer going “according to specifications.”