I am beginning in the meantime to act
accordingly. In the above circumstances, a public official German
declaration in favor of Ireland is highly desirable, in order to gain
the support of the Irish influence here.
That it was Rintelen's purpose to use large sums of money for the
purpose of bribing Congressmen was stated positively by George Plochman,
treasurer of the Transatlantic Trust Company, where Rintelen kept his
deposits.
Rintelen was the main figure on this side of the water in the fantastic
plot to have Mexico and Japan declare war upon the United States. During
the trial of Rintelen in New York City in May, 1917, it was testified
"that he came to the United States in order to embroil it with Mexico
and Japan if necessary; that he was doing all he could and was going to
do all he could to embroil this country with Mexico; that he believed
that if the United States had a war with Mexico it would stop the
shipment of ammunition to Europe; that he believed it would be only a
matter of time until we were involved with Japan."
Rintelen also said that "General Huerta was going to return to Mexico
and start a revolution there which would cause the United States to
intervene and so make it impossible to ship munitions to Europe.
Intervention," he said, "was one of his trump cards.
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