Note 779 — Chapter XIII

Bülow to Sternburg, June 27, 1905, ibid., 481, No. 6744. Sternburg inadvertently changed the wording of that promise to read as follows: “The Emperor has requested me [Sternburg] to tell you that if during the coming conference differences of opinion should arise between France and Germany, he, in every case, will be ready to back up the decision which you should consider to be most fair and most practical” (Sternburg to Roosevelt, June 28, 1905, quoted in Bishop, I, 487). The latter promise bound the German government more tightly than did the former, and was to cause it embarrassment later.