especially his speech of September 27th, as a basis for peace negotiations.
"In point of fact, the pronouncements of President Wilson were a statement of attitude made before the Brest-Litovsk treaty, and enforcement of the peace of Bucharest on Rumania, and the German statement of their intentions at the outset of the Spring offensive. They cannot, therefore, be understood as a full recitation of the conditions of peace.
"The phrasing of the German acceptance of them as a 'basis for peace negotiations' covers every variety of interpretation from sincere acceptance to that mere desire for negotiations which is the inevitable consequence of the existing military situation. It is, therefore, impossible to grant any armistice to Germany which does not give the Entente full and acceptable guarantees that the terms arranged will be complied with. There must be a clear understanding that Germany accepts certain principles as indisputable, and reserves for negotiation only such details as, in the opinion of the Associated Powers, are negotiable.
"In the full conviction of the power and the will of the Associated Powers to enforce a peace that shall be just and lasting, we
