The New York Times/1918/11/11/Says Germans Only Yearned for Peace
SAYS GERMANS ONLY YEARNED FOR PEACE
H. C. Emery, Who Was Detained in Germany, Arrives in This City.
BERLIN KNEW OF DEFEAT
Expected Abdication of Kaiser, He Declares, Meant Little to the People There.
Henry Crosby Emery, who was sent to Russia in 1916 by the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, to write a series of articles on the economic conditions existing in that country and who was taken prisoner by the Germans on Aland Island last March as he was escaping to Sweden, arrived in this city yesterday on the Norwegian-American liner Bergensfjörd. He left later for his home near Boston.
Mr. Emery was only confined for six weeks at Danzig and was then taken to Berlin, where he was at large until Oct. 22, when he was permitted to leave Germany and go to Copenhagen. When asked to give his opinion as to what would be the effect of the abdication of the Kaiser in Berlin and the upsetting of the autocratic form of Government, Mr. Emery replied:
"When I left Berlin the German people had made up their minds that they were beaten and were glad to accept the terms laid down by President Wilson under his fourteen points. The abdication of the Kaiser was the gossip of the clubs and hotels and was expected to occur any day.
"It did not really matter much to people. All they cared for was to have peace. The intelligent people of Germany conceded that they would have to give up Alsace-Lorraine and a part of Eastern Poland, pay indemnities to Belgium as well as restore the country and considered it was just what was deserved. In regard to the Colonies I think their ideas were a little different.
"Conditions were quiet in Berlin when I left and the people were orderly and calmly awaiting the setting up of the new democratic government. What happens now will depend upon whether the Bolshevist element among the Socialists obtains control of the situation, but I am not in a position to discuss the political outlook, as the conditions have changed so quickly while I have been at sea. There is nothing left for the people to do except to accept President Wilson's terms of peace, and they were glad to do it at the time I came away."
Mrs. Emery was with her husband when he was captured on Aland Island while traveling on sleighs across the ice to Sweden, but the Germans allowed her to go free, and she arrived home in May. She met her husband on his arrival, and will return home with him.