"We are, in these circumstances, in the position TO GIVE THE ASSURANCE THAT A TELEGRAM OF THE KAISER OF THIS NATURE DOES NOT EXIST.
"It is correct that an audience was granted to Ambassador Gerard on August 10, 1914, in order to give the opportunity to spread before His Majesty the peace mediation offer of President Wilson.
"The personal message of President Wilson to the Kaiser runs as follows: 'As official head of one of the Powers which signed the Hague Convention, I feel according to Article III of this Convention it is my right and my duty to declare to you in the spirit of the truest friendship that I would welcome every opportunity to act in the interest of the peace of Europe whether now or at another more fitting time....'
"This proposition came at a time when the opposing armies had already crossed the frontiers and when it seemed out of the question to halt the march of events.
"His Majesty could, therefore, only transmit to the President his thanks for the mediation offered and to add thereto that it was too early for the mediation of a neutral Power, but that later the friendly proposition of President Wilson could be taken up again.
"His Majesty, the Emperor, then talked for some time with the American Ambassador and set forth to him separately the events which led to the outbreak of the war. Particularly did the Kaiser call attention to the equivocal and unloyal position of England which had destroyed the hope of a peaceful issue.
"The setting forth by Ambassador Gerard in his memoirs seems to be a contradiction of this conversation.
"If the press of enemy countries sees revelations in this that only shows that they are not acquainted with the German White Book which sets forth these events.
"Possibly, during the interviews, the Emperor wrote down notes for the Ambassador, in order that the latter should not send anything incorrect to Washington. In this case we have to do only with certain notes to aid the memory of the Ambassador, not with a communication of the Emperor to President Wilson."
The Tageblatt reprinted this lame and silly explanation in its issue of August 13, 1917, and complained that, although its correspondent at the Hague sent, on August 7, 1917, this part of my first book in a telegram, only on August 11, did the Government permit the delivery to the Tageblatt of this story from the correspondent. Then the newspaper despatch had to be submitted to the Censorship officials who only released it for publication at midnight. The Tageblatt says, "The form of the explanation which has now appeared in the North German Gazette can hardly be called very happy. What does this mean—'possibly during the interview the Kaiser wrote down notes for the Ambassador in order that the latter should not send anything incorrect to Washington'? Now, after a week the occurrence must have been fathomed and it was not necessary to make use of a 'possibly.' Could Mr. Gerard consider these 'notes' in the handwriting of the Emperor as a draft for a telegram? And do these notes read, as a telegram of the Emperor to Wilson—as Mr. Gerard repeats them?"