Lansdowne letter

It was published by a London newspaper and written by Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, a former foreign secretary and war minister.

On 13 November 1916, Lansdowne circulated a paper to the Cabinet in which he argued that the war would destroy civilisation and that therefore peace should be negotiated on the basis of the status quo ante bellum.

[1] Lansdowne's proposal received a hostile response from other Unionists in the Cabinet such as Arthur Balfour and Lord Robert Cecil.

In the United States, former American president Theodore Roosevelt, a vocal proponent of the war effort, denounced the letter: "Such a peace would leave the liberty loving nations of mankind at the ultimate mercy of the triumphant militarism and capitalism of the German autocracy.

[8] The German equivalent of the Lansdowne letter was penned in 1916 by Karl Max, Prince Lichnowsky, the former ambassador in London, who was also criticised in Berlin for his well-intended efforts.