Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Supplement 1, The World War, Volume I

File No. 763.72119/2532

The Spanish Ambassador ( Riaño ) to President Wilson

Washington , October 14, 1918 .

Mr. President: I have the honor to transmit herewith, acting upon instructions from my Government, the text of a communication received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain from the Chargé d’Affaires of Turkey in Madrid on September [October?] 12, and which reached me late yesterday, Sunday evening.

Please accept [etc.]

Juan Riaño

[Enclosure]¹

The Turkish Chargé in Spain to the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs

The undersigned, Chargé d’Affaires of Turkey, has the honour, acting upon instructions from his Government, to request the Royal Government to inform the Secretary of State of the United States of America by telegraph, that the Imperial Government requests the President of the United States of America to take upon himself the task of the reestablishment of peace; to notify all belligerent states of this demand and to invite them to delegate plenipotentiaries to initiate negotiations. It (the Imperial Government) accepts as a basis for the negotiations the programme laid down by the President of the United States in his message to Congress of January 8, 1918, and in his subsequent declarations, especially the speech of September 27.²

In order to put an end to the shedding of blood, the Imperial Ottoman Government requests that steps be taken for the immediate conclusion of a general armistice on land, on sea, and in the air.

[No signature indicated]

1. Text received in English.
2. Texts of the two messages, ante, pp. 12 and 316.