File No. 763.72119/1825
The Vice Consul at Zurich ( McNally) to the Secretary of State 1
[Received July 29, 1918, 6.14 a.m.]
My son-in-law has been transferred to the Admiralty in Berlin and there the German Chancellor Hertling requested him to ask me to transmit the President of the United States through the Department of State an acceptance of his peace conditions saying that in no other way could he get the true statement before him. I replied that I was not permitted to without the consent of the Department of State and there the matter has rested for several days. Believing now, however, that my Government would profit by a knowledge of its nature, I am transmitting unknown to them the complete text:
German Chancellor fully agrees to the four conditions in President Wilson’s speech at Mount Vernon on the Fourth of July, 1918, and he too considers them as a good basis for peace negotiations. He agrees to these four conditions in the belief that the first generally is not intended to apply to any one stated government but is directed against all autocracies generally.
- Via the Legation in Switzerland, No. 4100, July 27, noon.↩