Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72119/21

The Ambassador in France (Herrick) to the Secretary of State

American Embassy,
Paris, September 9, 1914, 10 p.m.
[Received September 10, 9:20 a.m.]

[Telegram]

59. Your September 8, 4 p.m., suggests to me consideration of the following facts:

1.
President Poincaré’s remark to me when I delivered the President’s communication to him on August 6 to the effect that France was not the aggressor in the present war and could not, therefore, accept a proffer of mediation.
2.
President Poincaré’s statement to me on September 2 that France would consider the struggle to the end and would not accept any terms of peace.
3.
Agreement of the Entente powers at London not to make peace independently of each other.

In view of the above facts and considering the certainty that a proposal for mediation would be refused by the Entente powers at present, might it not appear that Germany was making a bid for the aid and sympathy of the neutral powers by espousing a proposition which she knows to be unacceptable to the nations with whom she is at war?

Await with much interest your further telegrams on this subject.

Herrick