The Chancellor entered the chamber from the rear of the rostrum and proceeded to his desk in the front platform row, facing the House and galleries.  After a few preliminary remarks by President Kaempf, the Chancellor arose.  To the Chancellor’s left, near the rear of the hall among his Socialist colleagues, sat a nervous, determined and defiant radical.  He was dressed in the uniform of a common soldier.  Although he had been at the front several months and in the firing line, he had not received the iron cross of the second class which practically every soldier who had seen service had been decorated with.  His clothes were soiled, trousers stuffed into the top of heavy military boots.  His thick, curly hair was rumpled.  At this session of the Reichstag the Chancellor was to have his first encounter with Dr. Karl Liebknecht, the Socialist radical, who in his soldier’s uniform was ready to challenge anything the Chancellor said.

The Chancellor began his address, as he began all others, by referring to the strong military position of the German army.  He led up, gradually, to the subject of peace.  When the Chancellor said:  “We could have gotten what we wanted by peaceful work.  Our enemies chose war.”  Liebknecht interjected in his sharp, shrill voice, “You chose the war!” There was great excitement and hissing; the President called for order.  Members shouted:  “Throw him out!” But Liebknecht sat there more determined than ever.

The Chancellor continued for a few minutes until he reached the discussion of the establishment of a Flemish nation in Belgium, when Liebknecht again interrupted, but the Chancellor continued:  “Gentlemen, we want neighbours who will not again unite against us in order to strangle us, but such that we can work with them and they with us to our mutual advantage.”  A storm of applause greeted this remark.  Liebknecht was again on his feet and shouted, “Then you will fall upon them!”

“The Europe which will arise from this, the most gigantic of all crises, will in many respects not resemble the old one,” continued von Bethmann-Hollweg.  “The blood which has been shed will never come back; the wealth which has been wasted will come back but only slowly.  In any case, it must become, for all living in it, a Europe of peaceful labour.  The peace which shall end this war must be a lasting one and not containing the germ of a fresh war, but establishing a final and peaceful order of things in European affairs.”

Before the applause had gotten a good start the fiery private in the Socialists’ rank was again on his feet, this time shouting, “Liberate the German people first!”

Throughout the Chancellor’s speech there was not one reference to the Sussex.  The Chancellor was anxious if he could to turn the world’s attention from the Sussex to the larger question of peace, but the world was not so inclined.  On the 18th of April I asked Admiral von Holtzendorff, Chief of the Admiralty Staff, for his opinion about the Sussex.  Two days later he approved the interview, in which I quoted him as saying: