ABSTRACT
The pact of London had been signed, at Russia's insistence, when France seemed to be on the point of defeat and when Russia appeared to be the strongest military power within the Entente. On 2 December 1914, Lord Esher, who had acted as Kitchener's private factotum in France since September, told Kitchener that the greatest problem confronting the Entente was that Perfect frankness is wanting between the highest authorities engaged in conducting the war on behalf of England, France and Russia. The French foreign minister, Delcasse, agreed that a patched up peace brought about by neutral mediation would only be an armed truce which would be no guarantee of France's future security. Jules Jusserand, the French ambassador, immediately rejected the offer and henceforth the French government did all it could to stop American mediation. The second American mediation attempt began in December when the German and Austrian ambassadors in Washington asked Wilson to send House to Europe to mediate.
