Radiogram Intercepted from German Radio Station Nauen

Title

Radiogram Intercepted from German Radio Station Nauen

Creator

Unknown

Identifier

WWP22529

Date

1918 October 20

Source

Library of Congress, Woodrow Wilson Papers, 1786-1957

Text

WASHINGTON.
RADIOGRAM INTERCEPTED FROM GERMAN RADIO STATION
NAUEN GERMANY.
-Press 159 Words 702 No. 2160 Trans-ocean press.

Second official twenty first. The text of the note which last night has been handed by the German Government to the Swiss Legation in Berlin for transmission to the Government of the United States of America reads as follows 'In accepting the proposal for an evacuation of the occupied territories the German Government has started from the assumption that the procedure of this evacuation and of the conditions of the armistice should be left to the judgment of the military advisors and that the actual standard of power on both sides in the field has to form the basis of arrangements safe guarding and guaranteeing this standard. The German government suggests to the President to bring about an opportunity for fixing the details. It trusts that the President of the United States will approve of no demand which will be irreconcilable with the honor of the German people and with opening a way to a peace of justice.

The German government protests against the reproach of the illegal and inhuman actions made against the German land and sea forces and thereby against the German people.

For the covering of a retreat destructions will always be necessary and are in so far permitted by international law. The German troops are under the strictest instruction to spare private property and to exercise care for the population to the best of their ability. Where transgressions occurred in spite of these instructions, the guilty are being punished. The German government further denies that the German Navy in sinking ships has ever purposely destroyed life boats with their passengers.

The German government proposes that with regard to all these charges the facts be cleared up by neutral commissions.

In order to avoid anything that might hamper the work of peace, the German government has caused orders to all submarine commanders to be despatched precluding the torpedoing of passenger ships, without however, from technical reasons, being able to guarantee for these orders to reach every single submarine at sea before its return.

As the fundamental condition for peace the president characterizes the destruction of every arbitrary power that can be separately, secretly and of its own single choice disturbed the peace of the world. To this the German government replied: Hitherto the representation of the people in the German empire has not been endowed with an influence on the formation of the government. The constitution did not provide for a concurrence of the representation of the people in decisions on peace and war. These conditions have just now undergone a fundamental change. The new government has been formed in complete accordance with the wishes of the representation of the people based on the equal, universal, secret, direct, franchise. The leaders of the great parties of the Reichstag are members of this government. In future no government can take, or continue in, office without possessing the confidence of the majority of the Reichstag. The responsibility of the chancellor of the empire to the representation of the people is being legally developed and safeguarded. The first act of the new government has been to lay before the Reichstag a bill to alter the constitution of the empire so that the consent of the representation of the people is required for decisions on war and peace. The permanence of the new system is however guarantee not only by constitutional safeguards, but also by the unshakeable determination of the German people, whose vast majority stands behind these reforms and demands their energetic continuance.

The question of the president, with whom he and the governments associated against Germany are dealing, is therefore answered in a clear and unequivocal manner by the statement, that the offer of peace and an armistice has come from a government which, free from any arbitrary and irresponsible influence, is supported by the approval of the overwhelming majority of the German people.
Berlin October the twentieth 1918.
(Signed) SOLF.

Staatssekretaer des KuswaertigenTrans-ocean Berlin.(Received complete by radio at 9:56 A.M. October 21st, 1918.)




Original Format

Letter

Files

http://resources.presidentwilson.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/WWI1255.pdf

Collection

Citation

Unknown, “Radiogram Intercepted from German Radio Station Nauen,” 1918 October 20, WWP22529, World War I Letters, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.