willingness on his
own part, and the inference from his tone and manner, as well as from
his habitual attitude, is that he feels no unwillingness to use the
President's good office, if occasion should arise.

I asked what he meant by "mediatorial"--the President's offering his
services or good offices on his own initiative? He said--No, not that.
But the Germans might express to the President their willingness or even
their definite wish to have an armistice, on certain terms, to discuss
conditions of peace coupled with an intimation that he might sound the
Allies. He did not expect the President to act on his own initiative,
but at the request or at least at the suggestion of the German
Government, he might conceivably sound the Allies--especially, he added,
"since I am informed that the notion is wide-spread in America that the
war will end inconclusively--as a draw." He smiled and remarked, as an
aside, that he didn't think that this notion was held by any
considerable group of people in any other country, certainly not in
Great Britain.

In further talk on this subject he said that none of the Allies could
mention peace or discuss peace till France should express such a wish;
for it is the very vitals of France that have received and are receiving
the shock of such an assault as was never before launched against any
nation. Unless France was ready to quit, none of France's Allies could
mention peace, and France showed no mood to quit. Least of all could the
English make or receive any such suggestion at least till her new great
army had done its best; for until lately the severest fighting had not
been done by the British, whose army had practically been held in
reserve. There had for a long time been a perfect understanding between
Joffre and Haig--that the English would wait to begin their offensive
till the moment arrived when it best suited the French.

The impression that I got from this part of the conversation was that
Sir Edward hoped that I might convey to the President (as, of course, he
could not) Sir Edward's idea of the effect of these parts of the
President's speech on feeling in England toward him. Nowhere in the
conversation did he make any request of me. Any one, overhearing it,
might have supposed it to be a conversation between two men, with no
object beyond expressing their views. But, of course, he hoped and meant
that I should, in my own way, make known to the President what he said.
He did