Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 2, The World War, Volume I

File No. 763.72/6723

Memorandum Dictated in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of State by the British Ambassador³

The Hague, July 16, 1917

Austrian Legation stated that in the course of the negotiations between the Emperor of Austria and Kaiser Wilhelm, Hindenburg had declared that under no circumstances could Germany adopt a program of a peace without annexation. Disruption and national bankruptcy would be the necessary consequence of a peace in which Germany recognized the commercial independence of Belgium.

3. Paraphrase of a telegram from The Hague, dated July 16, 1917.