not had the wish, I should have
left Kreuznach without paying him a visit. As, however, General
Ludendorff, in his evidence before the Examination Committee, allowed
it to be plainly understood that, owing to the difference of our
views, he did not like to have anything to do with me, I will at
once emphasize the fact, that my wish to see him was actuated by
purely official motives. In politics I have at all times laid all
personal feelings entirely aside, and, have thought only of the
business and the interests of my country. While I was kicking my
heels in Berlin for all those weeks, waiting upon a summons to the
Emperor, I was urged by many people to try and obtain an interview
with General Ludendorff, in order to enlighten him regarding American
affairs, as in this respect he was very badly informed. The latter
fact, has, at all events, been substantiated by General Ludendorff
himself, in his evidence before the Committee. The gentlemen who
urged me to obtain this interview, themselves made efforts to bring
it about. But these efforts were of no avail, and I therefore regarded
them as too insignificant to be mentioned in my own evidence. In all
my utterances before the Committee, I refrained from all allusion
to personal and subjective matters.

General Ludendorff has further maintained that I impugned his honor
by declaring that, generally speaking, he did not wish to conclude
peace. I naturally never made such a nonsensical statement. Immediately
after my visit to General Ludendorff at G. H. Q., I made notes
of the essential passages of our interview; because I suspected,
what in my opinion has since become a certainty, to wit, that the
General wished to heap all the blame of the war with America upon
my shoulders. Every impartial reader who examines the Notes given
below, will be forced to admit, that they contain nothing whatsoever
except assertions, which have been confirmed by all the evidence
given before the Committee of the National Assembly; that is to
say:

(1) That I wished to accept Mr. Wilson's offer of mediation.

(2) That the Imperial Government--that is to say, G. H. Q. or whoever
was responsible for taking the final decision--did not wish to
accept Mr. Wilson's offer of mediation, in order to declare the
unrestricted U-boat war instead.

(3) That the Naval Authorities had declared themselves in a position
to bring about a desire for peace in England in five months from
the 1st of February.