eral of the
belligerent nations, because I cannot assume that you have official
cognizance of it.

In the second place, this Government attempted to secure from the German
and British Governments mutual concessions with regard to the measures
those Governments respectively adopted for the interruption of trade on
the high seas. This it did, not of right, but merely as exercising the
privileges of a sincere friend of both parties and as indicating its
impartial good-will.

The attempt was unsuccessful, but I regret that your Excellency did not
deem it worthy of mention in modification of the impressions you
expressed. We had hoped that this act on our part had shown our spirit
in these times of distressing war, as our diplomatic correspondence had
shown our steadfast refusal to acknowledge the right of any belligerent
to alter the accepted rules of war at sea in so far as they affect the
rights and interests of neutrals.

In the third place, I note with sincere regret that in discussing the
sale and exportation of arms by citizens of the United States to the
enemies of Germany, your Excellency seems to be under the impression
that it was within the choice of the Government of the United States,
notwithstanding its professed neutrality and its diligent efforts to
maintain it in other particulars, to inhibit this trade, and that its
failure to do so manifested an unfair attitude toward Germany.

This Government holds, as I believe your Excellency is aware and as it
is constrained to hold in view of the present indisputable doctrines of
accepted international law, that any change in its own laws of
neutrality during the progress of a war, which would affect unequally
the relations of the United States with the nations at war, would be an
unjustifiable departure from the principle of strict neutrality, by
which it has consistently sought to direct its actions, and I
respectfully submit that none of the circumstances, urged in your
Excellency's memorandum, alters the principle involved.

The placing of an embargo on the trade in arms at the present time would
constitute such a change and be a direct violation of the neutrality of
the United States. It will, I feel assured, be clear to your Excellency
that holding this view and considering itself in honor bound by it, it
is out of the question for this Government to consider such a course.

I hope that your Excellency will realize the spirit in which I am
drafting this