File No. 763.72119/212a
The Secretary of State to Diplomatic Representatives in Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Japan, Roumania and Serbia, and to the Consul at Havre for transmission to the Belgian Government
The American Missions at Berlin, Vienna, Constantinople, and Sofia have received from the Governments of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria, respectively, identic notes for transmission to the Entente powers. The note from the German Government, which has been received in the English language, reads as follows:
Berlin, December 12, 1916.
Mr. Chargé d’Affaires: The most formidable war known to history has been ravaging for two and a half years a great part of the world. That catastrophe that the bonds of a common civilization more than a thousand years old could not stop strikes mankind in its most precious patrimony; it threatens to bury under its ruins the moral and physical progress on which Europe prided itself at the dawn of the twentieth century. In that strife Germany and her allies, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, have given proof of their indestructible strength in winning considerable successes at war.1 Their unshakable lines resist ceaseless attacks of their enemies’ arms. The recent diversion in the Balkans was speedily and victoriously thwarted. The latest events have demonstrated that a continuation of the war can not break their resisting power. The general situation much rather justifies their hope of fresh successes. It was for the defense of their existence and freedom of their national development that the four allied powers were constrained to take up arms. The exploits of their armies have brought no change therein. Not for an instant have they swerved from the conviction that the respect of the rights of the other nations is not in any degree incompatible with their own rights and legitimate interests. They do not seek to crush or annihilate their adversaries. Conscious of their military and economic strength and ready to carry on to the end, if they must, the struggle that is forced upon them, but animated at the same time by the desire to stem the flood of blood and to bring the horrors of war to an end, the four allied powers propose to enter even now into peace negotiations. They feel sure that the propositions which they would bring forward and which would aim to assure the existence, honor, and free development of their peoples, would be such as to serve as a basis for the restoration of a lasting peace.
If notwithstanding this offer of peace and conciliation the struggle should continue, the four allied powers are resolved to carry it on to a victorious end while solemnly disclaiming any responsibility before mankind and history.
The Imperial Government has the honor to ask through your obliging medium, the Government of the United States, to be pleased to transmit the present communication to the Government of the French Republic, to the Royal Government of Great Britain, to the Imperial Government of Japan, to the Royal Government of Roumania, to the Imperial Government of Russia, and to the Royal Government of Serbia.
I take this opportunity to renew to you, Mr. Chargé d’Affaires, the assurance of my high consideration.
Von Bethmann-Hollweg
To Mr.
Joseph Clark Grew
,
Chargé d’Affaires of the United States of
America.
The original texts of these notes will be forwarded as soon as received by this Government.
In bringing this note to the attention of the Foreign Office, as requested, intimate quite explicitly that, while you are submitting it on behalf of the respective Governments only, and in no sense as the [Page 95] representative of the Government of the United States, this Government is deeply interested in the result of these unexpected overtures, would deeply appreciate a confidential intimation of the character and purpose of the response that will be made, and will itself presently have certain very earnest representations to make on behalf of the manifest interests of neutral nations and of humanity itself to which it will ask that very serious consideration be given. It does not make these representations now because it does not wish to connect them with the proposed overtures or have them construed in any way as an attempt at mediation, notwithstanding the fact that these overtures afford an admirable occasion for their consideration. The Government of the United States had it in mind to make them entirely on its own initiative and before it had any knowledge of the present attitude or suggestions of the Central Governments. It will make the same representations to the Governments of the Central powers and wishes to make them almost immediately, if necessary, but not as associated with the overtures of either group of belligerents. The present overtures have created an unexpected opportunity for looking at the world’s case as a whole, but the United States would have itself created the occasion had it fallen out otherwise.