And I have since become far from a favourite of the Pan-Germans and of those in the Monarchy who follow the Pan-German ideas.

I have at the same time been hooted as an inveterate partisan of war by those whose programme is peace at any price, as innumerable letters have informed me.

Neither has ever disturbed me; on the contrary, the double insults have been my only comfort in this serious time.

I declare now once again that I ask not a single kreuzer, not a single square metre of land from Russia, and that if Russia, as appears to be the case, takes the same point of view, then peace must result.

Those who wish for peace at any price might entertain some doubt as to my 'no-annexation' intentions towards Russia if I did not tell them to their faces with the same complete frankness that I shall never assent to the conclusion of a peace going beyond the lines just laid down.