File No. 763.72119/19
The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State
London, September 3, 1914, 4 a.m.
[Received 8:30 a.m.]
[Telegram]
565. To the President: The idea is becoming common here that if the Germans take Paris, the German Emperor will make a proposal for peace and call on you to witness his unwillingness to shed another drop of blood. His proposal will, of course, be essentially the proposal of a conqueror. He will seek to save himself, his throne, and his bureaucracy. The dominant English opinion is that if he be let off, then the war will have been in vain. The resolve is to give a deathblow to the Germans at any cost in time, men and money. The English are preparing for a long war and, as I read their mood and character, they will not stop till they have succeeded. Many men freely express the hope to me that neither our Government nor American public opinion will regard any proposed peace as worth while that stops short of a final blow to bureaucracy.
So far as I can make out, the opinion of Europe outside of Germany is fast solidifying into severe condemnation of German methods, and the Germans are arousing the strongest moral condemnation. The burning of Louvain and other towns, the murder of non-combatants, the crimes against women and children, which are not printed but which are repeated everywhere, are producing in this kingdom a mood of grim determination.
Sir Edward Grey told me to-day that the Germans are preparing for a regular Zeppelin campaign to drop bombs on London. It is impossible to form an independent judgment about such a rumor, but Grey is the last man to indulge in gossip or to entertain groundless fears. The censorship here is so severe and effective that we hear nothing about the war till days after the events have occurred.
I am doing all I can without producing a degree of alarm that would offend the British Government to induce all Americans to go home. There are a good many here who remain merely to enjoy the excitement and the English are beginning severely to criticise them privately. They are in the way. They are in the wrong mood for such a time. Perhaps a proper expression of such an opinion by our Government would have an effect on them.