King Constantine's Reply to President Wilson's Peace Note, December 30, 1916

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WWI Document Archive > 1916 Documents > Official Communications and Speeches Relating to Peace Proposals 1916-1917 > King Constantine's Reply to President Wilson's Peace Note, December 30, 1916


King Constantine's Reply to President Wilson's Peace Note, December 30, 19161

     I wish to express, Mr. President, feelings of sincere admiration
and lively sympathy for the generous initiative you have just taken
with the view to ascertaining whether the moment is not propitious
for a negotiable end of the bloody struggle raging on earth.
     Coming from the wise statesman who, in a period so critical for
humanity, is placed at the head of the great American Republic, this
humanitarian effort, dictated by a spirit of high political sagacity
and looking to an honorable peace for all, can not but contribute
greatly toward hastening re-establishment of normal life and assuring
through a stable state of international relations the evolution of hu-
manity toward that progress wherein the United States of America
always so largely shares.
     [Here follows a recital of the trials Greece has suffered from the
war.]
     Such are the conditions in which your proposals find my country.
This short and necessarily incomplete recital is not made with the
purpose of criticism of the cruel blows at her sovereignty and neu-
trality from which Greece has been forced to suffer the effects. I have
merely wished to show you, Mr. President, how much the soul of
Greece at this moment longs for peace, and how much it appreciates
your proposals, which constitute so important a step in the course of
the bloody world tragedy of which we are witnesses.
                                                                           CONSTANTINE


1The New York Times, January 1, 1917. For the formal reply of the Greek Government, see post, p. 67.