war literature, has taught her people to
think and live in terms of war, and was fully prepared with enormous
reserves of materials when war came; whereas the Allied countries were
notoriously unprepared and in no condition to ward off the first blows
of a surprise attack, to say nothing of fighting an offensive campaign,
is generally considered enough to create a strong presumption that
Germany and not the Allies wanted war. The official correspondence of
the _ante-bellum_ days is full of suggestions for arbitration,
mediation, and other plans to preserve the peace, coming from the Allied
countries. Americans have searched in vain for a single plan for a
peaceful solution coming from Germany. On the contrary, your own version
of the negotiations shows only a persistent rejection by Berlin of every
peace plan, and a dogged determination to support Vienna in her assault
on Servia--an assault which, following the robbery of Bosnia and
Herzegovina by Austria under Germany's protection, could not be endured
by a civilised world, and was, therefore, certain to cause war.

When Servia, urged by the Allies to yield as much as possible in order
to prevent war, acceded to eight out of ten of Austria's humiliating
demands and agreed to arbitrate the two involving her national
sovereignty, the world saw that the Allied countries did not want war,
and were willing to suffer great humiliation for the sake of preventing
it. Americans do not consider that any fair-minded man possessed of
ordinary commonsense can honestly believe that nations seeking to
provoke war with Germany would have urged their _protege_ to make a
humiliating surrender to insolent and unjust demands. If there were any
truth in the assertion that the Allies were trying to force war on
Germany, they would have advised Servia to resist, not to yield. When
Austria, backed by Germany, declared war on Servia, despite Servia's
abject and complete surrender on eight points and willingness to
arbitrate the other two, there no longer existed outside of Germany and
Austria the slightest doubt that Germany was forcing the war to achieve
the aggrandisement which has been taught for years in your country as
the natural destiny of Germany.

Germany's guilt in forcing the war is recognised not only by Americans
and other neutral peoples, but by hundreds of thousands of Germans who
live in neutral countries and thus have a chance to learn more of the
truth than is possible in th