4 August 1914 - Poland of July 1930, Russia of June 1919 and Imperial Japan of 8 February 1905 ISOT

Still not at the real meat - the peace negotiations - just moving ahead with the cease-fire


Boys back home by Christmas! December 1914/19/30
It was a Europe taking a breath of relief as negotiations began at Geneva, Switzerland. Of course not all troops would go home for Christmas but quite a number – and there was much rejoicing.

Germany had tried holding on to its positions in Belgium and France but the Entente had been adamant. Germany had to withdraw to its pre-war borders except in the East where the Poles insisted on status quo with Entente backing.
The Entente blockade of German ports would be upheld untill negotiations finished and a treaty signed.
The German Navy would stay in port. An Entente Squadron would move into the Baltic to ensure the Germans would abide and stay in port as there was no other way of controlling this.
At this the Germans protested as it would mean that 8. Army in Königsberg would starve to death – the Entente answered that 8. Army be transported to another German Baltics port and Königsberg be surrendered to Polish control which would entail food and fuel supply from other German areas under Polish control.
Entente and Poland told the Germans that this was the points for entering a cease fire. Attacking either would be an act of war and hostilities be resumed.
The Germans caved in just before Christmas and 8. Army was transported to Wismar on ships under Entente convoy. Leaving Königsberg port the German troops would see freight trans carrying flour, milk and potatoes move into Königsberg. At least the Poles stuck to their part of the bargain.

At Geneva things soon stalled though with little on the Christmas table in west German homes in contrast to on the other side of the front line in the east - Polish occupied Germany.
Demonstrations for peace took root in Germany led by the Socialdemocratic and Communist Parties.

Quite a number of troops on Christmas leave would partake once they had seen the situation back home themselves.
Still Ebert Socialdemocratic leader urged non-violent demo's but at times Police and demonstrators would clash; with the numbers of soldiers on leave taking part in the demonstrations out of concern for their families – parents and younger siblings – the Army was quite restrained in aiding the Police. Referring to the situation on the frontlines still a cease fire and not wanting to set off huge scale riots perhaps initiating a revolution as in Russia as was now understood even in Germany.

That almost sent the Emperor through the roof and v. Moltke was sacked; though the General Staff and Min of War v. Falkenhayn told the Emperor that he would then have to take personal responsibility for any repercussions. v. Moltke was reinstated.

Leaflets had been dropped by night over German cities informing of the situation in Russia by Polish aircraft which had seen Germany complain at Geneva; the Poles countering the peoples of the World had a right to know and ultimately would.

Fearing chaos v. Bethmann Hollweg cabled Ebert to please stop the demo's so things wouldn't get out of hand.
Ebert replied that as long as demo's were non-violent he'd advocate them though he would certainly put a stop to Socialdemocratic ones should such turn violent. The political freedom of Germany should not be violated despite the situation.

In the east some demonstrations against the Polish occupation occured though the Polish Army told the Prussian Police President to handle matters or the Polish Army would do so – as it had been trained in the past by the Tsarist Army.
The Prussian Police President then assuring the Poles his Police could handle matters on its own.
Helping the Prussian Police was a note to the Germans from Socialdemocratic Leader Ebert urging his countrymen not to enrage the Polish occupiers as blodshed would certainly ensure.

Negotiations dragged on and on:

The French were adamant on A-L returning to them.
The Serbs wanted status quo ante.
The Poles were not negotiable on their borders of arrival and demanded more – all Germany east of the Oder! And yes, East Prussia.
The Japanese wanted Korea, Port Arthur, Tsingtao, Manchuria and Amur Province and as much of Sibiria as they could get and as their allies weren't in a position to halt them they'd take it.
The Belgians just wanted peace and a return to normal.
A-H wanted the Serb Black Hand members delivered to them and then status quo ante, and Galizia please?
Germany rejected everything though v. Bethmann Hollweg knew he was in a bad position with conditions in Germany still ruled by the Emperor was deteriorating week by week.
The British wanted the German Navy but realized they had to work a lot behind the scenes and off the negotiating table to make ends meet and bring a stop to the conflict so other matters could be attended to. Like China, Russian Civil War. Rise of Japanese Militarism and Italian Fascism. The list seemed very long indeed.

January 1915/20/31
At Geneva the hardest part was the Polish demands on territory but the British accepted the challenge.

The Oder as border to have a defensible one was rejected by the Entente powers instead they offered Poland a defensive alliance aimed at German resurgence.
Pilsudski then asked for referendums in the German territory of West Poznan/Posen and south east Silesia as he felt it a possible that he would get some there.
The Entente wasn't adverse to this but regarding E Prussia they countered why hadn't they won it during their 1919?
Pilsudski was all excuses but his Foreign Min being open said the Poles in the south of E Prussia was protestant and not wanting to join a Catholic Nation.
This seem foolish to the French but Britain then countered with instead of a possibly lost referendum in E Prussia how about the western bank of Danzig letting Germany keep the small eastern part? The Polish also wanted Danzig but that might sweeten the proposal for Germany.
Besides the Entente would need fleet support facilities in the Baltic – Copenhagen being the natural choice at the entry and main facility but how about another at Danzig? Pilsudski almost fell off his chair.

France then seemed the easier part – A-L returned to France.

A-H and Serbia was told to iron out their differences – Entente supported trail of Black Hand members be it in Serbia or A-H. The two had to work that out. A-H was remainded that Serbia HAD declared its willingness to comply with all points except two prior to War. They had to find a workable solution.
Serbia declared its will to cooperate though wanted financing of a railway to Montenegro to ease its access to trade not having to rely only on such through Greece.
France offered to secure the financing against a negotiated timetable of turning the railway over to Serb control. Serbia was satisfied as it bound France to it.
Regarding Galizia the Entente Powers told A-H that they wouldn't force a Polish change of borders and encouraged A-H to seek trading partners to solve the issue of oil just as Germany.

Belgium was offered a defensive alliance as was the case of Poland and accepted.

Japan was offered to takeover the German interest area in China of Tsingtao and according to the 1905 Portsmouth treaty keep Port Arthur and Dairien.
Korea was also recognized as a Japanese sphere of interest though Manchuria being another matter. The Entente didn't want a change of the situation of China's and also referred to the USA and its interests which might collide with Japan.
What Japan would be doing on former Russian territory was seen in order as long as it would be with a purpose of reinstating the rule of Imperial Russia. The Japanese didn't answer to that and it wasn't really part of the peace negotiations.

And then Britain itself having eased out all the various creases.
The threat of the Imperial German Dreadnought fleet persisted. Germany had 2 more building and was quite capable of building more. However in the present situation it might have been setback for a while.
Instead of robbing their Kings Royal cousin of his Navy it was proposed that Germany scrap all pre-Dreadnought Battleships as these were now obsolete and as loosing all its colonies also scrap its BattleCruisers to abstain from long distance raiding and support of colonies that would be no longer.
That the Germans then with an Entente Naval presence in the Baltic would be forced to split its Dreadnought fleet was the obvious that even the Germans would understand.
The ongoing Russian Civil War would end one day and the victorious party might well want to rebuild the former Imperial Baltic Fleet Dreadnoughts and possibly more to rival German control of the Baltic.
That seemed to close that part. Britannia still ruling the waves.

Popular referendums February 1915/20/31
In North Schleswig the referendum was pulled off in relatively good order though the Germans on a restrained scale did what they could to hinder it by denying leave to Danish Minority soldiers and only setting up ballot in German Majority areas which then was something of a disappointment as the Germans did try hinder the Danes in voting but on a much lesser scale than anticipated and actually quite a number of Germans in towns and cities ended up voting for Denmark – those were those that had suffered near famine due to shortcomings in cereals though the rural districts were staunchly pro German.

In Posen west and Silesia the German resistance to the referendum was much more pronounced mainly so in Posen which was heavily German populated though the good Polish actions to counter the famine was well in mind also the Polish occupation did contribute to the result though no parts of the area had voted 50 % for joining Poland.