the further cession of the unoccupied territories of Livonia and Esthonia.  Under such pressure the leader of the German delegation had not the power to compromise.  We then arrived at the signing of the treaty with Ukraine, which had, after much trouble, been brought to an end meanwhile.  It thus appeared as if the efforts of the Foreign Minister had proved fruitless.  Nevertheless he continued his discussions with Trotski, but these still led to no result, owing to the fact that Trotski, despite repeated questioning, persisted in leaving everything vague till the last moment as to whether he would, in the present circumstances, conclude any peace with the Four Powers at all or not.  Not until the plenary session of February 10 was this cleared up; Russia declared for a cessation of hostilities, but signed no treaty of peace.

The situation created by this declaration offered no occasion for further taking up the idea of a separate peace with Russia, since peace seemed to have come via facta already.  At a meeting on February 10 of the diplomatic and military delegates of Germany and Austria-Hungary to discuss the question of what was now to be done it was agreed unanimously, save for a single dissentient, that the situation arising out of Trotski’s declarations must be accepted.  The one dissentient vote—­that of General Hoffmann—­was to the effect that Trotski’s statement should be answered by declaring the Armistice at an end, marching on Petersburg, and supporting the Ukraine openly against Russia.  In the ceremonial final sitting, on February 11, Herr von Kuehlmann adopted the attitude expressed by the majority of the peace delegations, and set forth the same in a most impressive speech.  Nevertheless, a few days later, as General Hoffmann had said, Germany declared the Armistice at an end, ordered the German troops to march on Petersburg, and brought about the situation which led to the signing of the peace treaty.  Austria-Hungary declared that we took no part in this action.

6

=Report of the Peace Negotiations at Bucharest=

The possibility of entering upon peace negotiations with Roumania was considered as soon as negotiations with the Russian delegations at Brest-Litovsk had commenced.  In order to prevent Roumania itself from taking part in these negotiations Germany gave the Roumanian Government to understand that it would not treat with the present King and the present Government at all.  This step, however, was only intended to enable separate negotiations to be entered upon with Roumania, as Germany feared that the participation of Roumania in the Brest negotiations would imperil the chances of peace.  Roumania’s idea seemed then to be to carry on the war and gain the upper hand.  At the end of January, therefore, Austria-Hungary took the initiative in order to bring about negotiations with Roumania.  The Emperor sent Colonel Randa, the former Military Attache to the Roumanian Government, to the King of Roumania, assuring him of his willingness to grant Roumania honourable terms of peace.