d will not urge nor even ask it to do
anything which it does not judge to be wise and prudent and helpful. I
have done my best to promote this right understanding of the position of
Holland in the United States, and I shall continue to do so. I have no
knowledge of any instructions from Washington in regard to the manner of
delivering the President's note in Spain.

"What I cannot understand is the general misunderstanding of that note.
It expressly declared that it was not an offer of mediation nor a
proposal of peace. It was simply a suggestion that the belligerents on
both sides should state the terms on which they would be willing to
consider and discuss peace. The Entente Powers have already done this
with some clearness, and will probably soon do so even more clearly. The
Central Powers have politely, even affectionately, but very practically,
declined the President's invitation to state their terms. There is the
deadlock on peace talk at present. When both sides are equally frank the
world can judge whether the peace which all just men desire is near or
far away."

The accuracy and propriety of this statement have never been questioned
by the Department of State. On the contrary, it was practically affirmed
by the President in his address to the Senate on January 22, 1917, when
he said:

"On the 18th of December last I addressed an identic note to the
Governments of the nations now at war, requesting them to state, more
definitely than they had yet been stated by either group of
belligerents, the terms upon which they would deem it possible to make
peace. I spoke on behalf of humanity and of the rights of all neutral
nations like our own, many of whose most vital interests the war puts in
constant jeopardy.

"The Central Powers united in a reply which stated merely that they were
ready to meet their antagonists in conference to discuss terms of peace.

"The Entente Powers have replied much more definitely and have stated,
in general terms indeed, but with sufficient definiteness to imply
details, the arrangements, guarantees, and acts of reparation which they
deem to be indispensable conditions of a satisfactory settlement." Here,
then, we come within sight of the first of the conditions which are
absolutely precedent, at least so far as America is concerned, to any
discussion of peace.

1. Germany must answer President Wilson's note of December 18, 1916. She
must state her terms of peace, maximum or minim