ad swallowed, and had rectified their frontiers in
accordance with President Wilson's fourteen conditions and with Lloyd
George's statement on the same subject.

In other words, Germany was to be permitted to emerge from the war with
a profit only through military victory; she would have to defend her
conquests. This negatived the idea of a peace through negotiation.

[Sidenote: The German people equally to blame with their government.]

[Sidenote: The letter to Prince Sixtus.]

[Sidenote: Austria might make a separate peace.]

[Sidenote: There is suspicion among thieves.]

Having absorbed the fundamental fact that the Allies proposed to
continue the fight to the end, what then was Germany's position? I am
not one of those who cherish the fatuous delusion that this is a war in
which the German people are not equally involved with their government.
At the same time, it is undeniable that there existed in both the German
and the Austrian empires a considerable internal pressure, induced by
hunger and by privations (but not by any moral or ethical
considerations), to bring the war to a close. The cupboards of Russia
were neither so full nor so readily available as had been anticipated.
Suffering was general, and, with the scarcity not only of food but of
wool and of cotton, made the prospect of going through another winter of
war a gloomy contemplation. In Austria the situation was worse than in
Germany. The letter of the Austrian Emperor to his brother-in-law,
Prince Sixtus of Bourbon-Parma, which the French Government published
in April, gives sufficient indication of the Austrian need for peace. It
shows also that Germany must have had doubt of the loyalty of her ally,
and German knowledge that conditions had come to such a pass in Austria
that a separate peace would be more welcome to Austria than no peace at
all, regardless of the sacrifices which had to be made to obtain it. How
long Austria could be held Germany did not know, but it was evident that
she was not to be trusted too far. Austria is as unscrupulous, as
hypocritical as is Germany, and Germany knows it. And while there may be
honor among thieves, there is also suspicion.

[Sidenote: Germany must resume the offensive.]

But, aside from internal and political considerations, the military
situation itself was one which demanded immediate action or none at all.
It is an elemental military fact that a war cannot be won by defensive
action alone. Defeat