763.72111 Em 1/31½
President Wilson to the Secretary of State
Washington
,
5 August, 1915.
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have gone over this paper very carefully indeed, and these questions urge themselves, upon me:
- 1.
- Can this argument not be taken as an argument in sympathy with Allies and against militarism, which is Germany?
- 2.
- Are we not ourselves about to urge the control of the manufacture of arms and munitions by every government in our proposed understandings and undertakings with the Latin-American countries;32 and do we not wish ultimately to strive for the same thing in the final European settlement?
Of course we are arguing only to the special case, and are absolutely unanswerable in our position that these things cannot be done while a war is in progress as against the parties to it; but how far, do you think, the arguments we urge in this paper will estop us in future deliberations on the peace and security of the world?
Faithfully Yours,
W. W.
- See vol. II, pp. 471 ff.↩