The Economic Consequences of the PeaceKeynes, John Maynard
History
The Economic Consequences of the Peace
Keynes, John Maynard
Economic history -- 1918-1945; Treaty of Versailles (1919 June 28); World War, 1914-1918 -- Economic aspects
On October 5, 1918, the German Government addressed a brief Note to the
President accepting the Fourteen Points and asking for Peace
negotiations. The President's reply of October 8 asked if he was to
understand definitely that the German Government accepted "the terms
laid down" in Fourteen Points and in his subsequent Addresses and "that
its object in entering into discussion would be only to agree upon the
practical details of their application." He added that the evacuation of
invaded territory must be a prior condition of an Armistice. On October
12 the German Government returned an unconditional affirmative to these
questions;-"its object in entering into discussions would be only to
agree upon practical details of the application of these terms." On
October 14, having received this affirmative answer, the President made
a further communication to make clear the points: (1) that the details
of the Armistice would have to be left to the military advisers of the
United States and the Allies, and must provide absolutely against the
possibility of Germany's resuming hostilities; (2) that submarine
warfare must cease if these conversations were to continue; and (3) that
he required further guarantees of the representative character of the
Government with which he was dealing. On October 20 Germany accepted
points (1) and (2), and pointed out, as regards (3), that she now had a
Constitution and a Government dependent for its authority on the
Reichstag. On October 23 the President announced that, "having received
the solemn and explicit assurance of the German Government that it
unreservedly accepts the terms of peace laid down in his Address to the
Congress of the United States on January 8, 1918 (the Fourteen Points),
and the principles of settlement enunciated in his subsequent Addresses,
particularly the Address of September 27, and that it is ready to
discuss the details of their application," he has communicated the above
correspondence to the Governments of the Allied Powers "with the
suggestion that, if these Governments are disposed to effect peace upon
the terms and principles indicated," they will ask their military
advisers to draw up Armistice Terms of such a character as to "ensure to
the Associated Governments the unrestricted power to safeguard and
enforce the details of the peace to which the German Government has
agreed." At the end of this Note the President hinted more openly than
in that of October 14 at the abdication of the Kaiser. This completes
the preliminary negotiations to which the President alone was a party,
adding without the Governments of the Allied Powers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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