Herr Mühlon authorized the Humanité, a Paris Socialist paper, through
its Swiss correspondent, to publish the following remarkable letter
which he addressed from Berne, on May 7, 1917, to Herr von Bethmann
Hollweg, then Imperial Chancellor:
"However great the number and weight of the mistakes accumulated on the
German side since the beginning of the war, I nevertheless persisted for
a long time in the belief that a belated foresight would at last dawn
upon the minds of our Directors. It was with this hope that I put myself
to a certain extent at your disposal, in order to collaborate with you
in Rumania, and that I indicated to you that I was disposed to help in
Switzerland, where I am living at present, if the object of our efforts
was to be rapprochement of the enemy parties. That I was, and that I
remain, hostile to any activity other than reconciliation and
restoration I proved soon after the opening of hostilities by the
definite resignation of my Directorship of Krupps' works.
"But since the first days of 1917 I have abandoned all hope as regards
the present Directors of Germany. Our offer of peace without indication
of our war aims, the accentuation of the submarine war, the deportations
of Belgians, the systematic destruction in France, and the torpedoing of
English hospital ships have so degraded the Governors of the German
Empire that I am profoundly convinced that they are disqualified forever
for the elaboration and conclusion of a sincere and just agreement. The
personalities may change, but they cannot remain the representatives of
the German cause.
"The German people will not be able to repair the grievous crimes
committed against its own present and future, and against that of Europe
and the whole human race until it is represented by different men with a
different mentality. To tell the truth, it is mere justice that its
reputation throughout the whole world is as bad as it is. The triumph of
its methods--the methods by which it has hitherto conducted the war both
militarily and politically--would constitute a defeat for the ideas and
the supreme hopes of mankind. One has only to imagine that a people
exhausted, demoralized, or hating violence, should consent to a peace
with a Government which has conducted such a war, in order to understand
how the general level and the chances of life of the peoples would
remain black and deceptive.
"As a man and as a German who desires nothing but the welfare of the
deceived and tortured German people, I turn away definitely from the
present representatives of the German régime. And I have only one
wish--that all independent men may do the same and that many Germans may
understand and act.
"In view of the fact that it is impossible for me at present to make any
manifestation before German public opinion, I have thought it to be my
absolute duty to inform your Excellency of my point of view."