for those guarantees which could be settled in detail in a general
conference after a conference of the belligerents has brought about
a preliminary peace. To prove our _bona fides_ in this direction,
we are also ready in principle to open immediate negotiations with
the United States.

"Your Excellency will be so good as to inform the President of this,
and request him to work out the programme for the conference to
secure world peace, and to communicate it to us as soon as possible.

"Please also emphasize to Colonel House and President Wilson that
our actual peace conditions are very moderate, and, in contrast
to those of the Entente, are kept within thoroughly reasonable
limits; this is also particularly the case with regard to Belgium,
which we do not wish to annex. Moreover, we desire regulation of
commercial and traffic communications after the war without any
idea of a boycott, a demand which we think will be understood at
once by all sane people. On the other hand, the question of Alsace
and Lorraine we cannot consent to discuss.

"I should like to know how Your Excellency thinks that pressure
could be brought to bear by President Wilson to incline the Entente
to peace negotiations. In the light of our experience during the
two years of war, it seems to us that a prohibition of the export
of war material and foodstuffs, which would be the step most likely
to bring the Entente into line and would also be the best for us,
is unfortunately little likely to be realized. Only an effective
pressure in this direction could relieve us on our side of the urgent
necessity of resorting again to unrestricted submarine warfare. Should
Your Excellency have proposals to make as to how the unrestricted
submarine warfare can be conducted without causing a rupture with
America, I request you to report, immediately by telegram.

"ZIMMERMANN."

I understood from this telegram that I was to continue the negotiations
with Colonel House. The refusal contained in this telegram was only
concerned with a demand which had never been made by the United
States. Moreover, I have never personally had much faith in the
appeal to public opinion which would have nothing to do with Mr.
Wilson. If the Imperial Government had a few weeks before desired
such intervention, they must have believed that German public opinion
would agree to it. In my opinion, too, an agitation in favor of
American intervention would have set in in Germany qu