763.72119/55½
President Wilson to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: This is significant news.
I am, as you know, keeping in as close touch as possible with what the men in authority at Berlin, Paris, and London have in mind, and I am sorry to say that there is only one thing we can truthfully say to the Japanese Ambassador in reply to his inquiry,—and perhaps it will be useful to say it,—namely, that there are no terms of peace spoken of (at any rate in Germany) which are not so selfish and impossible that the other side are ready to resist them to their last man and dollar. Reasonableness has not yet been burned into them, and what they are thinking of is, not the peace and prosperity of Europe, but their own aggrandizement, an impossible modern basis (it might be well for Japan to reflect) for peace.
Faithfully Yours,