ente. From other sources there are distinct signs that we could
win over France if Germany could make up her mind to certain
territorial sacrifices in Alsace-Lorraine. With France secured to
us we are the conquerors, and Germany will obtain elsewhere ample
compensation. But I cannot allow Germany to be the only one to
make a sacrifice. I too will take the lion's share of sacrifice,
and have informed His Majesty your father that under the above
conditions I am prepared not only to dispense with the whole of
Poland, but to cede Galicia to her and to assist in combining that
state with Germany, who would thus acquire a state in the East
while yielding up a portion of her soil in the West. In 1915, at
the request of Germany and in the interests of our Alliance, we
offered the Trentino to faithless Italy without asking for
compensation in order to avert war. Germany is now in a similar
situation, though with far better prospects. You, as heir to the
German Imperial crown, are privileged to have a say in the matter,
and I know that His Majesty your father entirely shares this view
respecting your co-operation. I beg of you, therefore, in this
decisive hour for Germany and Austria-Hungary, to consider the
whole situation and to unite your efforts with mine to bring the
war to a rapid and honourable end. If Germany persists in her
standpoint of refusal and thus wrecks the hope of a possible peace
the situation in Austria-Hungary will become extremely critical.

I should be very glad to have a talk with you as soon as possible,
and your promise conveyed through Count Czernin soon to pay us a
visit gives me the greatest pleasure.

The Crown Prince's answer was very friendly and full of anxiety to
help, though it was also obvious that the German military leaders had
succeeded in nipping his efforts in the bud. When I met Ludendorff
some time afterwards in Berlin this was fully confirmed by the words
he flung at me: "What have you been doing to our Crown Prince? He had
turned very slack, but we have stiffened him up again."

The game remained the same. The last war period in Germany was
controlled by one will only, and that was Ludendorff's. His thoughts
were centred on fighting, his soul on victory.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] This is a literal rendering of the famous text from the German.

CHAPTER IV

ROUMANIA

1

My appointment as ambassador to Bucharest in the autumn of