This commission shall act under authority of the
Allied military and naval commanders-in-chief.
35. This armistice to be accepted or refused by Germany within
seventy-two hours of notification.
CHAPTER LIV
PEACE AT LAST
War came upon the world in August, 1914, with a suddenness and an impact
that dazed the world. When it seemed, in 1918, that mankind had
habituated himself to war and that the bloody struggle would continue
until the actual exhaustion and extinction of the nations involved,
peace suddenly appeared. The debacle of the Teutonic alliance was both
dramatic and unexpected, except to those who knew how desperate were the
conditions in the nations that were battling for autocracy. Bulgaria was
first to crumble, then Turkey fell, and Austria-Hungary deserted
Germany. The Kaiser and his military advisers, left alone, appealed to
the Allies through President Wilson, for an armistice during which peace
terms might be negotiated. Prince Maximilian of Baden, a statesman whose
liberal ideas were rumored rather than demonstrated, was chosen to open
negotiations. President Wilson, acting in concert with the Allies,
referred Prince Maximilian to Marshal Foch.
While negotiations were pending, a cabled message was received on
November 7th to the effect that the armistice had been signed and that
all soldiers would cease fighting on two o'clock of that afternoon.
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