urope.'

"He omitted to mention what Mr. Asquith made public in his speech at
Cardiff,[3] that Germany required as the price of an understanding an
unconditional pledge of England's neutrality. The British Government
were ready to bind themselves not to be parties to any aggression
against Germany. They were not prepared to pledge their neutrality in
case of aggression by Germany.

[Footnote 3: In his address at Cardiff, appearing in Vol. 1, No. 2, of
THE NEW YORK TIMES CURRENT HISTORY, Premier Asquith said:

In a communication to the German Government in 1912
regarding her future policy Great Britain declared that she
would neither make nor join in any unprovoked attack upon
Germany. But that was not enough for German statesmanship.

Germany wanted us to go further and pledge ourselves to
absolute neutrality in the event of Germany being engaged in
war. To that demand there was but one answer, and that was
the answer which the Government gave.]

"An Anglo-German understanding on the latter terms would not have
meant an absolute guarantee for the peace of Europe, but it would have
meant an absolutely free hand for Germany, so far as England was
concerned, for Germany to break the peace of Europe.

"The Chancellor says that in his conversation with the British
Ambassador in August last he 'may have been a bit excited at seeing
the hopes and work of the whole period of his Chancellorship going for
nought.'

"Considering that at the date of the conversation, Aug. 4, Germany had
already made war on France, the natural conclusion is that the
shipwreck of the Chancellor's hopes consisted not in a European war,
but in the fact that England had not agreed to stand out of it.

"The sincerity of the German Chancellor's professions to the American
correspondent may be brought to a very simple test, the application of
which is more apposite because it serves to recall one of the leading
facts which produced the present war.

"Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg refused the proposal which England put
forward and in which France, Italy, and Russia concurred, for a
conference at which the dispute would have been settled on fair and
honorable terms without war. If he really wished to work with England
for peace why did he not accept that proposal? He must have known
after the Balkan conference in London that England could be trusted to
play fair. Herr von Jagow had given testimony in the Reichst