merica as for Europe
that in future wars should be avoided. The President was only willing
to intervene in so far as he was certain of having American public
opinion behind him. In my conversations with Colonel House we never
spoke of the evacuation of any German territory. We always confined
ourselves exclusively to a real peace by negotiation on the basis
of the _status quo ante_. With such a peace Germany's position
in the world would have remained unimpaired. The freedom of the
seas, a principal point in the Wilson programme, could not but
be welcome to us. The President and Colonel House have been the
sponsors of this idea in America. Both were indefatigable in their
efforts to materialize this idea in such a way that war on commerce
should be abolished and that all commerce, even in war-time, should
be declared free. As a necessary result of this development of
the laws of naval warfare Mr. Wilson hoped to bring about general
naval disarmament, since navies would lose their _raison d'etre_
if they could only be used against each other and no longer against
commerce and for purposes of blockade. It is a regrettable fact
that at the Hague Conference we accepted the English standpoint
on the question of war on commerce, and not the American.

In October I was again instructed from Berlin to speed up Mr. Wilson's
peace movement. With regard to this new urgency Herr von Jagow,
on the 14th April, 1919, granted an interview to the Berlin
representative of the _New York Sun_, the substance of which was
as follows:

"In the autumn of 1916 the Emperor, Count Bernstorff and I opposed
the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, which was urged
with increasing vigor by our military and naval departments, as
being the only means of bringing the war to an early conclusion.
Week after week we watched for the hoped-for peace move of President
Wilson, which, however, did not come. At last, in October, the
Emperor, upon whom increasing pressure was being brought to bear
to give his consent to the unrestricted submarine campaign, sent
a memorandum to the American Government, reminding them or certain
mediation promises which had been made at the time of the _Sussex_
crisis.

"When this memorandum, addressed to Mr. Gerard, reached Berlin
Mr. Gerard had already left for America. I, therefore, cabled the
text to Washington and instructed Count Bernstorff to hand the
memorandum to Mr. Gerard on his arrival in New York. Count