would previously have rejoiced to accept the portfolio of the Minister for Foreign Affairs. My views as to the policy that should be adopted were so determined that I would have been glad to undertake the responsibility of executing them, because I had confidence in their correctness. But now the situation had been lost. And I only accepted the offer because at such times no man has the right to think of himself and his own future. One had to go where one was sent and where, one believed, one might still be of use.
I saw only one way out of the difficulty: a rapid and an immediate peace which, in my opinion, could only take one shape: namely, a separate peace. With a heavy heart I decided upon secession. Even if German policy had been instrumental in preventing the realization of peace at a time when this might have been accomplished under more advantageous conditions, and although the pan-Germans had strengthened the military party of the Entente, it is nevertheless indisputable that the Germans have defended our frontiers more than once heroically, successfully and faithfully, and that we cannot accuse them of any disloyalty. I felt the greatest reverence for this people of heroes in their misfortune; but "necessity knows no law," said Bethmann-Hollweg when he entered into Belgium.
I had no confidence that the Germans recognized the difficulty of the situation, because, if they had done so, their patriotic Kaiser would have abdicated in favour of his nephew, and the new Chancellor, the Prince of
