The official communication from the Austro-Hungarian Government was
handed to Secretary of State Lansing in Washington at 6.20 o'clock on
September 16th.
At 6.45 the following abbreviated reply of the United States Government
was made public, by the Secretary of State:
I am authorized by the President to state that the following will be the
reply of this government to the Austro-Hungarian note proposing an
unofficial conference of belligerents. "The Government of the United
States feels that there is only one reply which it can make to the
suggestion of the Austro-Hungarian Government. It has repeatedly and
with entire candor stated the terms upon which the United States would
consider peace, and can and will entertain no proposal for a conference
upon the matter concerning which it has made its position and purpose so
plain."
Arthur J. Balfour, the British Foreign Secretary, in a statement made
September 16th said: "It is incredible that anything can come of this
proposal.... This cynical proposal of the Austrian Government is not a
genuine attempt to obtain peace. It is an attempt to divide the Allies."
Premier Clemenceau in France took similar grounds, and stated in the
French Senate: "We will fight until the hour when the enemy comes to
understand that bargaining between crime and right is no longer
possible.
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