ABSTRACT
A study of the origins of many wars in the past suggests that the final month of negotiations before the outbreak of hostilities is often crucial, dramatic and intense. That was scarcely true in this case. The negotiations from 6 January to 10 February which are the subject of this chapter were in the nature of an adversarial coda. A coda is a musical term describing an independent and often artificial passage introduced after the natural conclusion of a musical work. In our case, the negotiations had come to a natural conclusion without success. They were prolonged not so much with real hope of success as for extraneous and artificial reasons, namely that the sides were not ready for war and wanted to delay matters. Since peace is valuable in itself, the prolongation of peace is also valuable. But this coda, while it is important, introduces little in the way of new material and reiterates old themes.
