File No. 763.72119/8290
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Page ) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 7, 10.50 a.m.]
7355. Mr. Balfour with Lord Hardinge, Under Foreign Secretary, called the Ambassadors of the United States, France, Italy, Russia and Japan, to meet him at noon to-day.1 He read us a telegram from the British Ambassador at Madrid saying that the Spanish Foreign Secretary had informed him that the Spanish Government had received a request to inquire whether the British Government would receive from Germany a communication regarding peace. The British Ambassador replied that he could not say, but that he thought the British Government’s answer would depend on the contents of the communication and on its source. The Spanish Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs said that the request had come from “a very exalted personage” and that he could not give further particulars. He added that the Spanish Government had no intention of mediating or intervening, but that it thought it proper to transmit the question to the British Government.
[Page 227]Mr. Balfour then gave us each a copy of the British reply which he is sending to the British Ambassador at Madrid. It is as follows:
“His Majesty’s Government would be prepared to receive any communication that the German Government may desire to make in relation to peace and to discuss it with their allies.”
Mr. Balfour went on to explain the indefiniteness of the Spanish Secretary’s conversation and expressed his strong suspicion that this move was only an effort to divide the Allies. He suspects that Germany hopes to satisfy the United States and Great Britain by a proposition regarding Belgium, to satisfy France by a proposition regarding Alsace-Lorraine, and so all the way around separately dishearten one government after another. He suspects also that Germany will try to induce at last [least] some of the Allies to meet German representatives in conference without definitely stipulating peace terms beforehand.
Mr. Balfour committed the British Government to the plan of discussing every German proposal with all the great powers engaged in war against Germany before answering the correspondence, and he assumed that all these powers would do the same. Balfour requested the utmost secrecy about the whole matter at least till more definite developments.
The British Foreign Office has had this telegram from the Ambassador at Madrid for a fortnight, Balfour remarked, and that he thought too prompt an answer would be bad diplomacy. I have no doubt that another reason for waiting so long to reply to it was the wish to see the result of the battles in France which Haig has won and that these victories make a reply now more opportune. …
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
I have strong but not conclusive evidence that the Kaiser sent for Villalobar, Spanish Minister at Brussels, … and that Villalobar conveyed the message to the Spanish Government. The German Ambassador at Madrid knew nothing till long after it had been delivered. Since the Germans did not use their own diplomatic channel they left themselves free to disavow Villalobar and deny that he had authority from them if the course of events goes awry.