Sunday, February 12, 2017

Today -100: February 12, 1917: We are no barbarians


Germany has evidently approached the US, using Switzerland as an intermediary now that the countries no longer have diplomatic relations, asking for suggestions from the US for how to modify its submarine warfare to not kill so many Americans.

Before finally allowing US Ambassador James Gerhard to leave Germany, the Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann tried to get him to reaffirm old treaties between the US and Prussia dating back to 1799 about the treatment of nationals (and their businesses) stuck in each other’s country during a war. Gerhard replied that he was no longer ambassador so suck it Fritz.

The NYT Germany reporter says Germans are being very polite to American acquaintances and even strangers just now and being very helpful. “‘We are no barbarians’ is the phrase often repeated.”

The elections in Cuba are marked by mass arrests of Liberals and rebellions by soldiers, as was the custom. There was a plot to kidnap President GarcĂ­a Menocal and force him to resign, or quite possibly that’s a story to justify arresting lots of people.

Remember how early last year a mob in Sylvester, Georgia seized five black men from the jail and lynched them, even though none of them was Jim Keith, the man they were looking for, who had supposedly killed a sheriff? Funny story. Keith was convicted of complicity in the murder, but a second trial just exonerated him and the other 5. Whoops.


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