n general, neither the Entente nor the ruling,
all-powerful military party in Germany wished for a peace of
understanding. They both wished to be victorious and to enforce a
peace of violence on the defeated adversary. The leading men in
Germany--Ludendorff above all--never had a genuine intention of
releasing Belgium in an economic and political sense; neither would
they agree to any sacrifices. They wished to conquer in the East and
the West, and their arbitrary tendencies counteracted the pacifist
leaning of the Entente as soon as there were the slightest indications
of it. On the other hand, the leading men in the Entente--Clemenceau
from the first and Lloyd George later--were firmly resolved to crush
Germany, and therefore profited by the continuous German threats to
suppress all pacifist movements in their own countries, always ready
to prove that a peace of understanding with Berlin would be a "pact
between the fox and the geese."

Thanks to the attitude of the leading Ministers in Germany, the
Entente was fully persuaded that an understanding with Germany was
quite out of the question, and insisted obstinately on peace terms
which could not be accepted by a Germany still unbeaten. This closes
the _circular vitiosus_ which paralysed all negotiating activities.

_We_ were wedged in between these two movements and unable to strike
out for ourselves, because the Entente, bound by their promises to
their Allies, had already disposed of us by the Pact of London and the
undertakings to Roumania and Serbia. We therefore _could_ not exercise
extreme pressure on Germany, as we were unable to effect the annulment
of those treaties.

In the early summer of 1917 the possibility of an understanding
_seemed_ to show itself on the horizon, but it was wrecked by the
previously mentioned events.

FOOTNOTES:

[8] Helfferich's _expose_ is reproduced in the Appendix. (See p. 288.)

[9] At this time I did not know that my secret report to the Emperor
was handed over to Herr Erzberger and not kept secret by him. (Later it
was made public through the revelations of Count Wedel.)

[10] The disclosures made by Count Wedel and Helfferich concerning
Erzberger are only a link in the chain.

CHAPTER VII

WILSON

Through the dwindling away of the inclination for peace in the enemy
camp we were faced in the autumn of 1917 by the prospect either of
concluding separate peace and accepting the many complicated
consequences o