763.72119/1410a
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador on Special Mission (Reading)
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: The President has received from the Emperor of Austria a message in which the Emperor expresses agreement with the four principles of peace which were formulated by the President in his address to the Congress on the eleventh of February last77 and in effect invites a further comparison of views through personal representatives. In reply the President has asked the Emperor [Page 110] for as definite a programme for the application of the four principles as the President himself made public in his address to the Congress on the eighth of January last.78 The President hopes in this way that he may possibly obtain what has so long been desired—a definite programme of the war aims of the Central Powers. He feels at liberty while making this effort to accede to the wish of the Emperor of Austria that this interchange of messages be personal and private.
I am [etc.]