temperament and character of the President of the United for the
time being.

I see in the note great possibilities for good. The undersea activities
of the German Navy in their effect upon the rights of the United States
and its citizens form, properly, the burden of its argument. We are
addressing Germany, and it is only over her submarine policy that our
interests have clashed with hers. The note takes cognizance, however, of
the inter-relation of Germany's submarine policy and the British policy
of "starving out Germany." The President has opened an avenue to the
full discussion of the rights and obligations of submarines in naval
warfare, and when Germany has stated her case it is not only not
impossible but it is highly probable that he will be asked to suggest a
modus vivendi by which the objectionable features of both these policies
may be removed.

The situation is basically triangular and it is difficult to see how the
settlement of our difficulties with Germany can escape involving at the
same time the rectification of Great Britain's methods of dealing with
the trade between neutral countries and her adversaries. It is but a
step from the position of mediator in a question of this sort to that of
mediator in the larger questions which make for war or peace. I believe
that the note contains the hopeful sign that these things may come to
pass.

The possibilities are there and the President, I am confident, will
overlook no possibility of advancing the cause of an early return of
peace to Europe nor leave any unturned stone to free this country of the
dangers and inconveniences which have become the concomitants of the
European struggle. Out of the troubled waters of our present relations
with Germany may thus come a great and, we may hope, a lasting good.
Should this happily be the case, the wisdom of the President will have
been confirmed and the thankfulness of the nation secured to him. On the
other hand, should his pacific hand be forced by those who wax fat and
wealthy on strife and the end should be disaster untold to the country,
he will still have the consolation of having fought a good battle and of
knowing that he was worsted only by the irresistible force of demagogy
in this country or abroad.

The subject with which the note deals is one of the same paramount
importance to Germany as it is to this country, and we must wait in
patience for Germany's reply; and I, for one, shall wait in the
con