The Main Committee of the Reichstag dealt with Prince Lichnowsky's
memorandum on March 16. Herr von Payer, Vice Chancellor, stated that
Prince Lichnowsky himself on March 15 made a statement to the Imperial
Chancellor, in which he said:
"Your Excellency knows that the purely private notes which I wrote down
in the Summer of 1916 found their way into wider circles by an
unprecedented breach of confidence. It was mainly a question of
subjective considerations about our entire foreign policy since the
Berlin Congress. I perceived in the policy hitherto pursued of repelling
(in der seitherigen Abkehr) Russia and in the extension of the policy of
alliances to Oriental questions the real roots of the world war. I then
submitted our Morocco naval policy to a brief examination. My London
mission could at the same time not remain out of consideration,
especially as I felt the need in regard to the future and with a view to
my own justification of noting the details of my experiences and
impressions there before they vanished from my memory. These notes were
intended in a certain degree only for family archives, and I wrote them
down without documentary material or notes from the period of my
official activity. I considered I might show them, on the assurance of
absolute secrecy, to a very few political friends in whose judgment as
well as trustworthiness I had equal confidence."