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.

On November 5, 1918, the President transmitted to Germany the reply he
had received from the Governments associated with him, and added that
Marshal Foch had been authorized to communicate the terms of an
armistice to properly accredited representatives. In this reply the
Allied Governments, "subject to the qualifications which follow, declare
their willingness to make peace with the Government of Germany on the
terms of peace laid down in the President's Address to Congress of
January 8, 1918, and the principles of settlement enunciated in his
subsequent Addresses." The qualifications in question were two in
number. The first related to the Freedom of the Seas, as to which they
"reserved to themselves complete freedom." The second related to
Reparation and ran as follows:--"Further, in the conditions of peace
laid down in his Address to Congress on the 8th January, 1918 the
President declared that invaded territories must be restored as well as