d would have
welcomed a separate peace on our part, even during Clemenceau's period
of office; but in that case we should have had to accept the terms of
the London conference.

Such was the peace question then. How it would have developed if no
misleading policy had come into being naturally cannot be stated.

I am not putting forward suppositions but confirming facts. And the
fact remains that the failure of the U-boat campaign on the one hand,
and a policy carried on behind the backs of the responsible men on the
other hand, were the reasons why the favourable moment passed and the
peace efforts were checked. And I herewith repeat that this fact does
not in itself prove that peace negotiations would not also have failed
later if the two reasons mentioned above had not existed.

It became quite clear in the autumn that the war would have to
continue. In my speeches to delegations I endeavoured to leave no
doubt that we were faithful to our Allies. When I said "I see no
difference between Strassburg and Trieste," I said it chiefly for
Sofia and Constantinople, for the overthrow of the Quadruple Alliance
was the greatest danger. I still hoped to be able to prop the
trembling foundations of the Alliance policy, and either to secure a
general peace in the East, where the military opposition was giving
way, or to see it draw nearer through the anticipated German
break-through on the Western front.

Several months after my dismissal in the summer of 1918 I spoke in the
Herrenhaus on foreign policy, and warned everyone present against
trying to undermine the Quadruple Alliance. When I declared that
"honour, duty to the Alliance, and the call for self-preservation
compel us to fight by the side of Germany," I was misunderstood. It
did not seem as though the public realised that the moment the Entente
thought the Quadruple Alliance was about to break up, from that moment
our cause was lost. Had the public no knowledge of the London
agreement? Did they not know that a separate peace would hand us over
totally defenceless to those cruel conditions? Did they not realise
that the German army was the shield that afforded us the last and only
possibility of escaping the fate of being broken up?

My successor steered the same course as I had done, doubtless from the
same reasons of honour and the call for self-preservation. I have no
particulars as to what occurred in the summer of 1918.

Afterwards events followed in rapid su