NOVEMBER 9, 1918
These fateful hours
Marshal Foch has lost no time in answering Germany’s petition for an armistice. Yesterday morning the delegates presented themselves at the Allied Headquarters, and he handed them the conditions on which their request will be conceded. At the same time he informed them that these terms must be accepted or refused within three days. He also told them that the cool suggestion of their Government for an immediate suspension of hostilities pending this decision could not be entertained. It was put forward, Prince Max and his colleagues affirmed, “in conformity with humanity”; but the advantages it would have conferred are so patent that it suggests either sheer impertinence or the necessity to convince the German people that every possible loophole of escape has been explored. Every hour of immunity from the converging attacks which threaten to cut off the enemy’s retreat would be invaluable to them. No respite can be thought of until they have agreed, formally and irrevocably, to the terms. Stringent as these must be, it hourly becomes clearer that the German Government must submit to them or incur a terrible responsibility. The delegates have dispatched a courier to convey them to the Chancellor and the German High Command at Spa, and an urgent request that he shall be sent back as quickly as possible with the latest instructions.
The signs increase that peace on any conditions grows more and more vital to the enemy. The Chancellor, Prince Max, has just declared in an address to Germans abroad that in the fifth year of the contest, and “abandoned by their allies” — a not very generous complaint — the German people “could no longer wage war against increasingly superior forces”, and he confesses that “the victory for which many had hoped has not been granted to us”.
The signs of internal commotion in Germany are growing more serious. The chief naval ports are in the hands of mutinous sailors and soldiers and revolutionary civilians, while the movement is spreading inland. Want and the collapse of all expectations of victory and plunder excited by the “militarists” have excited dangerous passions among the masses. Anger against the Emperor is fierce. His abdication is being called for upon all sides.
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