"The military protection of the Baltic by the marine is completely reestablished. All departing warships carry the war-flag. The movement among the sailors and workmen has taken a quieter course. The soldiers of the garrison are endeavoring to take measures against violations of order. A gradual general surrender of weapons is proceeding. Private houses and business places, as well as lazarets and hospitals, are unmolested. Nearly all banks are doing business. The provisioning in the barracks and on the ships is being carried out in the usual manner. The furnishing of provisions to the civilian population has not been interfered with. The strike at the factories continues. The people are quiet." Reports from other coast cities were less favorable. Wolff reported: "In Hamburg there is a strike in the factories. Breaches of discipline and violent excesses have occurred. The same is reported from Luebeck. Except for excesses in certain works, private property has not been damaged nor touched. The population is in no danger." Chancellor Prince Max issued a proclamation, declaring that Germany's enemies had accepted Wilson's program, except as to the freedom of the seas. "This," he said, "forms the necessary preliminary condition for peace negotiations and at the same time for armistice negotiations." He declared that a delegation had already been sent to the west front, but "the successful conduct of negotiations is gravely jeopardized by disturbances and undisciplined conduct." The Chancellor recalled the privations endured by the people for more than four years and appealed to them to hold out a little longer and maintain order. The situation was, however, already lost. If Scheidemann, Ebert and their fellow members in the central committee of the Majority Socialist organization had had their followers in hand the revolution could probably still have been prevented, or at least transformed into an orderly dethroning of the Kaiser and institution of parliamentary reforms. But they did not have them in hand, and the result was that _Vorwaerts_, the party's central organ, published in its morning issue a further demand for the Kaiser's abdication. _Vorwaerts_ declared that his sufferings could not be compared to those of most German fathers and that the sacrifice he was called upon to make was comparatively small. The appearance of this article was followed a few hours later by an ultimatum to the government, demanding that the Kaiser abdicate within twenty-four hours and declaring that if he failed to do so, the Socialists would withdraw from the government. It is probable that Scheidemann, Ebert and some of the other leaders of the party presented the ultimatum with reluctance, realizing what it would involve, but they were helpless in the face of the sentiment of the mass of their party and of the attitude of the Independent Socialists.