File No. 763.72119/10494
The Ambassador in Spain (Willard) to the Secretary of State
[Received 12.50 p. m.]
240. His Majesty sent for me this afternoon and asked that I telegraph immediately to the President as follows:
From information just received from the Spanish Ambassador, Berlin, His Majesty feels that the German forces are now willing to consider peace and that His Majesty is ready to cooperate with the President toward securing arbitration protocol.
In the course of an hour’s further conversation His Majesty stated that he had the assurance of the Pope’s full cooperation. His Majesty feels that while his own influence on Austria and Germany may be stronger than the President’s and that he could take the initiative with these Governments yet [cipher badly garbled but inference is apparently made that the President’s influence is greater with France and England]; that France was nearing the end of her resources and would really welcome peace, that Italy and Turkey were desperately tired; that Russia, though possessed of more available military forces for the ranks, was almost without officers and was encountering great difficulty in organizing her fresh forces; that by inference Austria would follow Germany’s lead; [that], though England might be perhaps opposed to any movement looking to peace as proposed by [Germany], yet she could not resist the influence of the United States, sovereignty [Spain?], and the Vatican, supported by the sentiment of the civilized countries; and that from a military point of view the belligerents were quite harmless [Page 29] [hopelessly deadlocked?]. The King expressed himself interested solely on the ground of humanity and on account of the irreparable loss that his [country] and other neutral powers were sustaining in the continuance of the war. (He concluded?) by asking that I secure as soon as possible an expression of the President’s wishes.
[For a discussion of the peace proposals in an account of a conversation with the Chancellor see telegram No. 3880, May 11, 1916, received May 12, from the Ambassador in Germany, post, page 267.]