A few weeks after the Armistice he wrote to his wife in New England, ‘I suppose you want to know all about the “Huns”, the feeling of the people etc. This is a difficult matter. One doesn’t know.’10 But he was soon describing the Germans as ‘Sphinx-like and proud’, observing how quickly they had reverted to their traditional industriousness despite their lack of proper tools. Smith also noted that, although they seemed to accept the American occupation without question, they regarded their new republic with deep cynicism, adding that ‘they live in deadly fear of Bolshevism’.11
