er subsequent action, managed to link them
together.

Ambassador Gerard requested his passports on February 5, 1917, while
the release of the _Yarrowdale_ prisoners was pending. Meantime
dispatches which came to Berlin from Washington via London were
blamed for misleading the German Government into thinking that the
United States was detaining Count von Bernstorff, and had seized the
German ships, with their crews, lying in American ports. Until it
received assurances regarding the "fate" of the ex-ambassador and
learned what treatment was to be meted out to the "captured" crews of
the German vessels, the kaiser's government detained Ambassador
Gerard, his staff, a number of Americans, including newspaper
correspondents, as well as the _Yarrowdale_ men. It practically held
all Americans in Germany as prisoners for a week.

In view of the readiness of the German Government to seize upon the
flimsiest excuses for its manifold disgraceful deeds, permissible
doubts arose as to whether it was willingly or willfully misled by the
dispatches. Every courtesy was shown to the departing German
Ambassador by the Washington Government; safe conduct across the ocean
was obtained for him from Great Britain; and he publicly expressed his
acknowledgments. As to the German vessels, there were no seizures, and
the only restraints imposed on the crews were those required by the
immigration laws. Whatever the motive, the detention of Ambassador
Gerard was so wanton a violation of law and usage as to constitute in
itself an act of war.

While Ambassador Gerard was held incommunicado in Berlin, his mail
intercepted, his telephone cut off, and telegraphic facilities denied
him, the German Government actually sought to parley with him by way
of revising an old treaty to apply to existing conditions. Mr. Gerard,
having ceased to hold ambassadorial powers after the breaking of
relations, could not enter into any such negotiations; but then the
German Government had never been concerned with legalities. It blandly
asked him to sign a protocol, the main purpose of which was to protect
Germans and their interests in the United States in the event of war.

The proposed protocol, besides containing a formal reratification of
the American-Prussian treaties of 1799 and 1828 regarding mutual
treatment of nationals caught in either belligerent country in case of
war, provided for some remarkable additions as a "special
arrangement" should war be dec