who have so far conducted the war. He deems the answers to these questions vital from every point of view. Accept, Sir, the renewed assurances of my high consideration. (Signed) ROBERT LANSING. MR. FREDERICK OEDERLIN, Chargé d'Affaires of Switzerland ad interim, In charge of German interests in the United States. Chargé d'Affaires of Switzerland to the Secretary of State.3 DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN INTERESTS. SIR: LEGATION OF SWITZERLAND, WASHINGTON, D. C. October 14, 1918. I have the honor to transmit herewith, upon instructions from my government, the original text, received this morning, of a communication from the German Government to the President of the United States, in reply to his communication to the Imperial German Chancellor, transmitted to me by Your Excellency on October 8, 1918. I beg herewith also to enclose the English translation of this communication, as transmitted by the German Legation in Berne to the Swiss Foreign Office. Accept, sir, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration. (Signed) F. OEDERLIN, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of Switzerland. His Excellency, ROBERT LANSING, Secretary of State. (Enclosure) Translation of the reply from the German Government to the communication of October 8, 1918, of the President of the United States transmitted by the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of Switzerland to the Secretary of State on October 14, 1918: In reply to the question of the President of the United States of America the German Government hereby declares: The German Government has accepted the terms laid down by 3 Official U. S. Bulletin, October 15, 1918. President Wilson in his address of January the eighth and in his subsequent addresses as the foundations of a permanent peace of justice. Consequently, its object in entering into discussions would be only to agree upon practical details of the application of these terms. The German Government believes that the governments of the Powers associated with the United States also accept the position. taken by President Wilson in his addresses. The German Government, in accordance with the Austro-Hungarian Government for the purpose of bringing about an armistice, declares itself ready to comply with the propositions of the President in regard to evacuation. The German Government suggests that the President may occasion the meeting of a mixed commission for making the necessary arrangements concerning the evacuation. The present German Government which has undertaken the responsibility for this step towards peace has been formed by conferences and in agreement with the great majority of the Reichstag. The chancellor, supported in all of his actions by the will of this majority, speaks in the name of the German Government and of the German people. SOLF, State Secretary of Foreign Office. The Secretary of State to the Chargé d'Affaires of Switzerland.* DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: WASHINGTON. October 14, 1918. In reply to the communication of the German Government, dated the 12th instant, which you handed me today, I have the honor to request you to transmit the following answer: The unqualified acceptance by the present German Government and by a large majority of the German Reichstag of the terms laid down by the President of the United States of America in his address to the Congress of the United States on the eighth of January, 1918, and in his subsequent addresses justifies the President in making a frank and direct statement of his decision with regard to the communications of the German Government of the eighth and twelfth of October, 1918. It must be clearly understood that the process of evacuation and the conditions of an armistice are matters which must be left to the judgment and advice of the military advisers of the Government of the United States and the Allied 4 Official U. S. Bulletin, October 15, 1918. Governments, and the President feels it his duty to say that no arrangement can be accepted by the Government of the United States which does not provide absolutely satisfactory safeguards and guarantees of the maintenance of the present military supremacy of the armies of the United States and of the Allies in the field. He feels confident that he can safely assume that this will also be the judgment and decision of the Allied Governments. The President feels that it is also his duty to add that neither the Government of the United States nor, he is quite sure, the governments with which the Government of the United States is associated as a belligerent will consent to consider an armistice so long as the armed forces of Germany continue the illegal and inhumane practices which they still persist in. At the very time that the German Government approaches the Government of the United States with proposals of peace its submarines are engaged in sinking passenger ships at sea, and not the ships alone but the very boats in which their passengers and crews seek to make their way to safety; and in their present enforced withdrawal from Flanders and France the German armies are pursuing a course of wanton destruction which has always been regarded as in direct violation of the rules and practices of civilized warfare. Cities and villages, if not destroyed, are being stripped of all they contain, not only but often of their very inhabitants. The nations associated against Germany cannot be expected to agree to a cessation of arms while acts of inhumanity, spoliation, and desolation are being continued which they justly look upon with horror and with burning hearts. It is necessary, also, in order that there may be no possibility of misunderstanding, that the President should very solemnly call the attention of the Government of Germany to the language and plain intent of one of the terms of peace which the German Government has now accepted. It is contained in the address of the President delivered at Mount Vernon on the fourth of July last. It is as follows: "The destruction of every arbitrary power anywhere that can separately, secretly, and of its single choice disturb the peace of the world; or, if it cannot be presently destroyed, at least its reduction to virtual impotency." The power which has hitherto controlled the German nation is of the sort here described. It is within the choice of the German nation to alter it. The President's words just quoted naturally constitute a condition precedent to peace, if peace is to come by the action of the German people themselves. The President feels bound to say that the whole process of peace will, in his judgment, depend upon the definiteness and the satisfactory character of the guarantees which can be given in this fundamental matter. It is indispensable that the governments associated against Germany should know beyond a peradventure with whom they are dealing. The President will make a separate reply to the Royal and Imperial Government of Austria-Hungary. Accept, Sir, the renewed assurances of my high consideration. (Signed) ROBERT LANSING. MR. FREDERICK OEDERLIN, Chargé d'Affaires of Switzerland ad interim, In charge of German interests in the United States. Chargé d'Affaires of Switzerland to the Secretary of State." DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN INTERESTS. SIR: LEGATION OF SWITZERLAND, WASHINGTON, D. C. October 22, 1918. By direction of my government, I have the honor to transmit herewith to Your Excellency the original German text of a communication dated October 20, 1918, from the German Government, which has today been received from the Swiss Foreign Office. I beg to also enclose an English translation of the communication in question as transmitted to the Swiss Foreign Office by the German Government with the request that it be forwarded to Your Excellency's Government. Please accept, Sir, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration. His Excellency, ROBERT LANSING, Washington. (Signed) F. OEDERLIN, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of Switzerland. (Enclosure) Translation issued by the German Government of its communication dated October 20, 1918, transmitted to the Secretary of State by the Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of Switzerland on October 22, 1918: In accepting the proposal for an evacuation of the occupied territories the German Government has started from the assumption that the procedure of this evacuation and of the conditions of an armistice should be left to the judgment of the military advisers and that the actual standard of power on both sides in the field has to form the basis for arrangements safeguarding and guaranteeing this standard. The German Government suggests to the President to bring about an opportunity for fixing the details. It trusts that the President of the United States will approve of no demand which would be irreconcilable with the honor of the German people and with opening a way to a peace of justice. The German Government protests against the reproach of illegal and inhumane actions made against the German land and sea forces 5 Official U. S. Bulletin, October 23, 1918. and thereby against the German people. For the covering of a retreat, destructions will always be necessary and are in so far permitted by international law. The German troops are under the strictest instructions to spare private property and to exercise care for the population to the best of their ability. Where transgressions occur in spite of these instructions the guilty are being punished. The German Government further denies that the German Navy in sinking ships has ever purposely destroyed lifeboats with their passengers. The German Government proposes with regard to all these charges that the facts be cleared up by neutral commissions. In order to avoid anything that might hamper the work of peace, the German Government has caused orders to be despatched to all submarine commanders precluding the torpedoing of passenger ships, without, however, for technical reasons, being able to guarantee that these orders will reach every single submarine at sea before its return. As the fundamental conditions for peace, the President characterizes the destruction of every arbitrary power that can separately, secretly and of its own single choice disturb the peace of the world. To this the German Government replies: Hitherto the representation of the people in the German Empire has not been endowed with an influence on the formation of the government. The Constitution did not provide for a concurrence of the representation of the people in decision on peace and war. These conditions have just now undergone a fundamental change. The new government has been formed in complete accord with the wishes of the representation of the people, based on the equal, universal, secret, direct franchise. The leaders of the great parties of the Reichstag are members of this government. In future no government can take or continue in office without possessing the confidence of the majority of the Reichstag. The responsibility of the Chancellor of the Empire to the representation of the people is being legally developed and safeguarded. The first act of the new government has been to lay before the Reichstag a bill to alter the Constitution of the Empire so that the consent of the representation of the people is required for decisions on war and peace. The permanence of the new system is, however, guaranteed not only by constitutional safeguards, but also by the unshakable determination of the German people, whose vast majority stands behind these. reforms and demands their energetic continuance. The question of the President, with whom he and the governments associated against Germany are dealing, is therefore answered in a clear and unequivocal manner by the statement that the offer of peace and an armistice has come from government which, free from arbitrary and irresponsible influence, is supported by the approval of the overwhelming majority of the German people. (Signed) SOLF, State Secretary of Foreign Affairs. BERLIN, October 20, 1918. |