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38o WITH THE GERMAN ARMIES IN THE WEST
At Karlsruhe, on the following day, I waited on the noble
and high-minded mother of our Queen, the Dowager Grand
Duchess Luise, as well as on the Grand Duke and his Consort.
I was only due to leave for Berlin by the night train, and was
therefore very glad to be able to accept the Grand Duchess
Luise’s most gracious proposal that I should inspect the gigan-
tic and ideally equipped hospital in the Gewerbeschule under
her Royal Highness’s own august guidance. I met there two
distinguished head nurses, the wife of General von Oetinger
and Frau Sautier, also Fru Linder from Stockholm who was
here to study hospital arrangements in the field and who had
met with the greatest hospitality in Karlsruhe.
It was most touching to see the Grand Duchess, in spite of
her seventy-six years, walk from bed to bed, from ward to
ward, encouraging soldiers and speaking to them in a way
that went straight to the heart. In her black dress and her
black lace veil over her head, she looked like a pious abbess
French press it appeared under a different guise. Thus, for instance, the
" Journal des Débats," in a telegram from Bordeaux, dated November 22nd,
publishes the following :
—
" Un télégramme de Bale dit qu’en quittant I’Allemagne, Sven Hedin I’ex-
plorateur suédois bien connii, a été arrété et retenu quelque temps å Heidelberg
conime suspect d’espionnage."
The " Figaro " has quite a little article under the heading of " Vieil
Heidelberg." Other headings are as follows :
—
" Le germanophile arrété pour espionnage.—lis arrétent leur meilleur ami I—
Arrestation de M. Sven Hedin.—Arrété comme espion.—Les allemands soup-
fonnent leurs meilleurs amis," and so on ad infinitum. An English newspaper,
the " Newcastle Chronicle," of November 24th, managed to improve on
these versions :
" The adventure at Heidelberg of Sven Hedin, the Swedish
explorer now in the pay of the German Official Press Bureau, appears to
have been amusing. He delivered a lecture in public at the ancient cradle
of German culture, and knowing him to be a foreigner, the Heidelberg police
regarded his intense enthusiasm for the greatness of Germany as suspicious.
He was accordingly arrested, and detained for several days until his employers
of the Press Bureau could be communicated with and establish that he was
not a spy. Perhaps this little experience may cool Sven Hedin’s ardour.
In any case, why was he lecturing in Heidelberg ? His services in Holland
or Italy, the United States, or any other neutral country requiring enlighten-
ment would seem natural and appropriate, but surely Heidelberg needs no
lessons in pan-germanism."
The surprising thing about the English description is not its wealth of
detail given with the same readiness as when it is a question of great and
serious matters, such as, for instance, Hindenburg’s continuous defeats,
the uninterrupted German retreat from Flanders, the funeral of the German
Crown Prince, which takes place on an average of about once a month, etc.
No, the really surprising thing in this article is that the newspaper would find
it natural and suitable if I were to plead Germany’s cause in neutral countries,
such as Holland, Italy or the United States. A bon cntendeur, saltU ’.
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