ions. House had an
idea of travelling to England in person. The more detailed the
information Your Excellency can give me as to our conditions and
readiness to give guarantees the better from my point of view.
However, I do not know whether Your Excellency may not perhaps
prefer to let the negotiations break down rather than accept American
help. In my opinion it is not necessary that the United States
should take part in all the negotiations. All that is necessary
would be for us to pledge ourselves to the guarantees, which would
be settled in detail at a general conference, after a conference
of the belligerents had concluded a preliminary peace.

"I submit to Your Excellency the above proposal because I am convinced
that our enemies will not consent to negotiations unless strong
pressure is brought to bear. This, however, will, in my opinion,
occur if Your Excellency thinks it possible to accept American
intervention. With the exception of the Belgian question the American
Government ought to bring us more advantage than disadvantage, as
the Americans have only just come to realize what England's mastery
of the seas means."

This telegram I consider the most important of the entire negotiations,
inasmuch as it reached Berlin on the 3rd January, therefore six days
before the decision in favor of unrestricted submarine war. When
I re-read my telegrams to-day, I still--even after the evidence
given before the Commission of the National Assembly--have the same
impression as at that time, that Mr. Wilson agreed with our wishes
and regarded it as his principal task to bring about a conference of
the belligerent parties. I cannot, therefore, understand how it was
possible to regard this American offer as anything but an offer of
peace mediation, and how the Foreign Office could declare to G. H.
Q. that there had never been any question of peace mediation by Mr.
Wilson. On the other hand, I quite understand that Bethmann-Hollweg,
as he stated before the Commission of the National Assembly, was
very sceptical with regard to the President's policy. Nevertheless,
an offer of mediation was made which had to be accepted or refused.
In the first case it was necessary to bring forward the submarine
war as little as possible; in the other we should have to create a
clear diplomatic situation in Washington, if we were to avoid the
reproach of having negotiated with Wilson on the subject of peace
while at the same time planning t