There is also a large number in military and naval circles that I believe would be glad to begin parleys, but the trouble is mainly with the people.

It is a very dangerous thing to permit a people to be misled and their minds inflamed either by the press, by speeches, or otherwise.
In my opinion, no government could live here at this time if peace was proposed upon terms that would have any chance of acceptance.
Those in civil authority that I have met are as reasonable and fairminded as their counterparts in England or America, but, for the moment, they are impotent.
I hear on every side the old story that all Germany wants is a permanent guaranty of peace, so that she may proceed upon her industrial career undisturbed.
I have talked of the second convention[110], and it has been cordially received, and there is a sentiment here, as well as elsewhere, to make settlement upon lines broad enough to prevent a recurrence of present conditions.
There is much to tell you verbally, which I prefer not to write.
Faithfully yours, E.M.

HOUSE.
Colonel House's next letter is most important, for it records the birth of that new idea which afterward became a ruling thought with President Wilson and the cause of almost endless difficulties in his dealings with Great Britain.

The "new phase of the situation" to which he refers is "the Freedom of the Seas" and this brief note to Page, dated March 27, 1915, contains the first reference to this idea on record.

Indeed, it is evident from the letter itself that Colonel House made this notation the very day the plan occurred to him.
_From Edward M.House_ Embassy of the United States of America, Berlin, Germany.
March 27, 1915.
DEAR PAGE: I have had a most satisfactory talk with the Chancellor.