if we had concluded an
unsatisfactory peace, without attempting to bring about a happy
decision by means of the last and most effective weapon in which
the nation felt any confidence. He also said that he would have
been unable to go before the Reichstag with an offer of mediation
from Mr. Wilson, because such intervention would not have been
popular, public opinion would not have liked it, and it would only
have been accepted by the Social Democrats. Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg
declared that the Reichstag would have "thrown him out." This was
the very expression he used. But this did not explain why, a few
weeks previously, Mr. Wilson's mediation had seemed desirable,
if, as a matter of fact, it was impossible to get the Reichstag
to agree to it. Meanwhile, the political situation at that time
has been completely elucidated by the evidence which Herr von
Bethmann-Hollweg gave before the Examination Committee of the National
Assembly. In his account of the interview he had with me, he spoke
as follows:

"As regards my interview with Count Bernstorff, on his return from
America, I should like to make the following remarks: I cannot recall
all the details of the conversation I had with Count Bernstorff.
Count Bernstorff has revealed in his evidence what I said to him,
and I have no doubt that he has accurately reproduced my actual
words. My duty was--and this is an idea I already touched upon
earlier in the day--once the policy of an unrestricted U-boat war
was resolved upon, never to reveal to anyone any doubts as to the
efficacy of the scheme. In this case, too, I had to say, we shall
achieve something by means of it. And that is why in my conversation
with Count Bernstorff, I did not reveal my inmost feelings on the
subject--there was no need for me to do so--but simply referred to
the reasons which could be adduced in favor of the U-boat war."

The reception which I was given in Berlin, certainly at first left
nothing to be desired. The Imperial Chancellor, on the occasion of
our first meeting, had thanked me in a very hearty manner for my
work in Washington, and a few days later, proposed that I should go
on an extraordinary mission to Stockholm. On principle I was quite
prepared to do this, seeing that the recent outbreak of revolution
in Russia, and the prospective international Socialist conference
in Stockholm, would offer fresh possibilities of peace, and an
opportunity for useful work. From various things