ABSTRACT
What was said or done by me will be most clearly explained and best understood by stating the considerations and convictions that were dominant in my mind throughout that week . . .
1. A conviction that a great European war under modern conditions would be a catastrophe for which previous wars afforded no precedent . . . I thought this must be obvious to everyone else, as it seemed obvious to me; and that, if once it became apparent that we were on the edge, all the Great Powers would call a halt and recoil from the abyss.
