Believe me, it is really in the interest of the cause and in every respect can only be for the best.

In sincere friendship, your devoted TISZA.
_Enclosure._ It may be presumed with some semblance of truth that the peace wave in America is progressing, and that President Wilson, influenced thereby, may perhaps be able at any rate to postpone a decision of a warlike nature.

Even though I may be wrong in my presumption, it lies in our interests to avoid for as long as possible the rupture of our diplomatic relations with America.
Therefore the answer to the American _aide-memoire_, to be dispatched as late as possible, should be so composed as to give it the appearance of a meritorious handling of the theme put forward on the American side without falling into the trap of the question put forward in the _aide-memoire_.
If we answer yes, then President Wilson will hardly be able to avoid a breach with the Monarchy.

If we give a negative answer we shall abandon Germany and the standpoint we took up on January 31.
The handle wherewith to grasp evasion of a clear answer is provided by the _aide-memoire_ itself, as it identifies our statements in the _Ancona_ and _Persia_ question with the attitude of the German Note of May 4, 1916.

We should, therefore, be quite consistent if we, as we did in our Note of December 14, 1915, were to declare that we should be governed by our own ideas of justice.
In our correspondence with the American Government respecting the _Ancona_, _Persia_ and _Petrolite_ questions we treated the concrete case always without going deeper into the individual principles of legal questions.