asked for a three days' adjournment. He was instructed by his home government to stand firm for the disruption of the German navy; but on his cabling that it was the unanimous opinion of the rest of the Allies, that the assumption by Germany of this enormous indebtedness would so far cripple her financially as to render any material increase of her naval forces impossible before the existing ships were becoming obsolete, he was instructed to accept the German conditions.
And so, on the 1st of March, 1916, the thirteen signatures which ended the greatest moral and material tragedy in the whole history of the world were appended and peace settled over the stricken people of Europe.
And, thereafter, men said to one another when they met: "How came it about that Germany so suddenly agreed to pay that fifteen-billion-dollar indemnity?"
