ubsequent publication of which,
in both countries, would merely involve further misunderstandings,
is bound to lead to a breach. It considers the present system of
confidential negotiations with me as the only promising method of
arriving at an agreement. The memorandum on the _Arabic_ is not
understood here, and in so far as it is understood, is considered
to be a manifestation of German bad faith--a sign that we may perhaps
give way in principle, but will always in practice seek to evade
our obligations thus incurred.

"Lest this telegram should, by its length, give offence to the
British, Mr. Lansing is forwarding the evidence in the _Arabic_ case
to Mr. Gerard for transmission to your Excellency; he is himself
quite convinced that the submarine commander was not compelled in
self-defense to torpedo the _Arabic_, and that his action in so
doing was therefore unjustified. He hopes that your Excellency
will after study of the evidence, agree with him in this.

"To obtain full and complete agreement it is first of all necessary
that I should be empowered to publish in full those instructions
given to our submarine commanders in so far as these were not given
in my previous summaries on the matter. If we still consider ourselves
bound to maintain that the officer concerned in the _Arabic_ case
was only obeying orders, we can never hope to come to an agreement,
for no one can possibly feel any confidence in the sincerity of our
intentions. In the meantime I shall try to reach a settlement on
the matters now in dispute by means of arbitration. Finally, the
question of compensation must, in accordance with my instructions
for the _Lusitania_ case, be referred to the Hague Tribunal.

"I am quite certain that if we fail to reach an agreement, severance
of diplomatic relations cannot but follow.

"Lansing will not reply to the _Arabic_ memorandum, and, as I said
before, will conduct the diplomatic exchanges on this matter only
through me. He considers this as the only possible course on the
ground that Wilson and I are alike committed to the policy of 'the
freedom of the seas.'

"Finally, I may observe that everyone here would be much gratified
if we could see our way to extend the scope of our latest instructions
to our submarines so as to include all merchant shipping. It is
argued that these vessels are slow moving and could easily be warned;
the advantage of acting without warning is only of importance in
the case o