If peace is signed, then the self-determination of the people in the occupied territory will decide.

But here arises the great difficulty: how this right of self-determination is to be exercised.
"The Russians naturally do not want the vote to be taken while the German bayonets are still in the country, and the Germans reply that the unexampled terrorism of the Bolsheviks would falsify any election result, since the 'bourgeois,' according to Bolshevist ideas, are not human beings at all.

My idea of having the proceedings controlled by a _neutral_ Power was not altogether acceptable to anyone.

During the war no neutral Power would undertake the task, and the German occupation could not be allowed to last until the ultimate end.

In point of fact, both sides are afraid of terrorisation by the opposing party, and each wishes to apply the same itself.
"_December 26, 1917._--There is no hurry apparently in this place.