When I declared that "honour, duty to the Alliance, and the call for self-preservation compel us to fight by the side of Germany," I was misunderstood.

It did not seem as though the public realised that the moment the Entente thought the Quadruple Alliance was about to break up, from that moment our cause was lost.

Had the public no knowledge of the London agreement?
Did they not know that a separate peace would hand us over totally defenceless to those cruel conditions?
Did they not realise that the German army was the shield that afforded us the last and only possibility of escaping the fate of being broken up?
My successor steered the same course as I had done, doubtless from the same reasons of honour and the call for self-preservation.

I have no particulars as to what occurred in the summer of 1918.
Afterwards events followed in rapid succession.

First came our terrible defeat in Italy, then the Entente break-through on the Western front, and finally the Bulgarian secession, which had gradually been approaching since the summer of 1917.
3 As is the case in all countries, among the Entente during the war there were many and varied currents of thought.