er the
future of our people. The German-Austrian National Assembly
asserts that the Note of October 27 from the Royal and Imperial
Minister for Foreign Affairs was drawn up and dispatched to
President Wilson without in any way coming to an agreement with
the representatives of the German-Austrian people. The National
Assembly protests all the more insistently against this proceeding
as the nation to which the present Minister for Foreign Affairs
belongs has expressly refused any joint dealings. The National
Assembly states that it and its organs alone have the right to
represent the German-Austrian people in all matters relating to
foreign affairs and particularly in all peace negotiations."

The protest met with no opposition in the National Assembly.

Afterwards the chairman, Dr. Ellenbogen, the Social Democrat, spoke as
follows:

"Instead of now telling the German Emperor that his remaining in
office is the greatest obstacle to peace" (loud applause from the
Social Democrats), "and if there ever were an object in Curtius's
famous leap, it would be comprehensible now were the German
Emperor to copy it to save his people, this coalition now seizes
the present moment to break away from Germany and in doing so
attacks German democracy in the rear. Those gentlemen arrived too
late to gain any profit from the peace. What now remains is the
_bare and shameful breach of faith_, the thanks of the House of
Austria, so styled by a celebrated German poet." (Applause from
the Social Democrats and the German Radicals.)

It was the attack on the separate peace that furnished the exceptional
opportunity for Social Democrats and German Radicals to unite in
common applause, probably the first instance of such a thing in all
these years of war.

If that could happen at a moment when it already was obvious that
there was no longer a possibility of making a peace of understanding
together with Germany--what would have happened, I ask, at a time
when this was by no means so clear to the great majority of the
population; at a time when it was still far from certain, or, at
least, not to be proved mathematically, that we in time and together
with Germany might still be able to conclude a peace of understanding?
Disbandment at the front, where all would be fighting against all,
civil war in the interior--such would have been the result of a
separate peace. And all that in order finally to im