Baden, would not have been able to speak about making Alsace-Lorraine a separate German country. I was afraid that the German military command, having been roused from their first intoxication, would allow themselves to be persuaded by the conviction that they were ultimately unconquerable, in order to commence resistance once more. I also noticed that Wilson prolonged his negotiations. When I returned from Switzerland, I brought with me the certain knowledge that Germany and her allies would be proceeded against without any consideration whatever. The soil of France which had been devastated with merciless thoroughness was an eternal and unfortunately comprehensible source of hatred and revenge. We were unable to assist the Germans by the continuation of the war in any way. The hope that we could achieve an honourable peace by negotiation through co-operation and the display of power, was in my opinion the greatest self-deception. The Entente would inevitably have given way under pressure of this procedure to the demands of their military parties, and continued their irresistible offensive in order to be able to dictate the terms of peace in Berlin, Vienna and Budapest. And these terms of peace would have been more severe than the present ones, because all of us would have had to shoulder the responsibility of the devastation of the last retreat, and, moreover, we would have had to suffer for it. The only way in which we could be of any use to the Germans was to convince them as soon as possible that only one possibility was left: the conclusion of
