mpossible. We had then to choose
between leaving Germany to itself, and signing a separate peace, or
acting together with our three Allies and finishing with a peace
including the covert annexation of the Russian outer provinces.

The former alternative involved the serious risk of making a breach in
the Quadruple Alliance, where some dissension was already apparent.
The Alliance could no longer stand such experiments. We were faced
with the final military efforts now, and the unity of the Allies must
not in any case be further shaken. On the other hand, the danger that
Wilson, the only statesman in the world ready to consider the idea of
a peace on mutual understanding, might from the conclusion of such a
peace obtain an erroneous impression as to our intentions. I hoped
then, and I was not deceived, that this eminently clever man would
see through the situation and recognise that we were forced to act
under pressure of circumstances. His speeches delivered after the
peace at Brest confirmed my anticipation.

The peace with Ukraine was made under pressure of imminent famine. And
it bears the characteristic marks of such a birth. That is true. But
it is no less true that despite the fact of our having obtained far
less from Ukraine than we had hoped, we should, without these
supplies, have been unable to carry on at all until the new harvest.
Statistics show that during the spring and summer of 1918 42,000
wagon-loads were received from the Ukraine. It would have been
impossible to procure these supplies from anywhere else. Millions of
human beings were thus saved from death by starvation--and let those
who sit in judgment on the peace terms bear this in mind.

It is also beyond doubt that with the great stocks available in
Ukraine, an incomparably greater quantity could have been brought into
Austria if the collecting and transport apparatus had worked
differently.

The Secretary of State for Food Supplies has, at my request, in May,
1919, furnished me with the following statistical data for
publication:

Brief survey of the organisation of corn imports from Ukraine (on
terms of the Brest-Litovsk Peace) and the results of same:

When, after great efforts, a suitable agreement had been arrived
at with Germany as to the apportionment of the Ukrainian supplies,
a mission was dispatched to Kieff, in which not only Government
officials but also the best qualified and most experienced experts
which the