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rearming. In 1931, the truly forward-looking diplomats were anticipating 

the Second World War, and there could be no war without an 

"aggressor".

Hoover had also carried out a number of mining promotions in various 

parts of the world as a secret agent for the Rothschilds, and had been 

rewarded with a directorship in one of the principal Rothschild 

enterprises, the Rio Tinto Mines in Spain and Bolivia. Francqui and 

Hoover threw themselves into the seemingly impossible task of 

provisioning Germany during the First World War. Their success was 

noted in Nordeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, March 13, 1915, which 

noted that large quantities of food were now arriving from Belgium by 

rail. Schmoller’s Yearbook for Legislation, Administration and Political 

Economy for 1916, shows that one billion pounds of meat, one and a 

half billion pounds of potatoes, one and a half billion pounds of bread, 

and one hundred twenty-one millions pounds of butter had been 

shipped from Belgium to Germany in that year. A patriotic British 

woman who had operated a small hospital in Belgium for several 

years, Edith Cavell, wrote to the Nursing Mirror in London, April 15, 1915, 

complaining that the "Belgian Relief" supplies were being shipped to 

Germany to feed the German army. The Germans considered Miss 

Cavell to be of no importance, and paid no attention to her, but the 

British Intelligence Service in London was appalled by Miss Cavell’s 

discovery, and demanded that the Germans arrest her as a spy.

72

Sir William Wiseman, head of British Intelligence, and partner of Kuhn 

Loeb Company, feared that the continuance of the war was at stake, 

and secretly notified the Germans that Miss Cavell must be executed.