appointed the German ambassador to the United States. He was recalled to Germany on 7 July 1914 but returned on 2 August, upon the outbreak of the World War I. It was later revealed that he had been recruited into intelligence work and ordered to assist the German war effort by all means necessary. He was also provided with a large slush fund to finance those operations. He began with attempts to assist German-Americans who wished to return home to fight by forging passports to get them through the Allied blockade. Publicly, Bernstorff's ambassadorship in Washington was characterised by a diplomatic battle with the British ambassador, Sir Cecil Spring Rice, with both men attempting to influence the American government's position regarding the war. Later, however, as the blockade began to prevent American munitions manufacturers from trading with Germany, Bernstorff began financing sabotage missions to obstruct arms shipments to Germany's enemies. Some of the plans included a September 1914 attempt at destroying the Welland Canal, which circumvents Niagara Falls. That year, the German diplomatic mission also began supporting the expatriate Indian movement for independence. Bernstorff was assisted by Captain Franz von Papen, later a German chancellor, and Captain Karl Boy-Ed, a naval attaché. The commercial attaché, Heinrich Albert, was the finance officer for the sabotage operations. Papen and the German consulate in San Francisco were known to have been extensively involved in the Hindu–German Conspiracy, especially in the Annie Larsen gun-running plot. Although Bernstorff himself officially denied all knowledge, most accounts agree that he was intricately involved as part of the German intelligence and sabotage offensive in America against Britain. After the capture of the and confiscation of its cargo, Bernstorff made efforts to recover the $200,000 worth of arms and insisted that they were meant for Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa. That was futile, however, and the arms were auctioned off. In December 1914, a humorous British article on his activities in the United States, The Amazing Ambassador, by P.G. Wodehouse, was published in the Sunday Chronicle on 13 December 1914. That month also saw Bernstorff receive a cable from the German Foreign Office that instructed him to target the Canadian railways. On 1 January 1915, the Roebling Wire and Cable plant in Trenton, New Jersey, was blown up. On 28 January, an American merchant ship carrying wheat to Britain was sunk. On 2 February 1915, Lieutenant