ment has accepted England's violations of international
law.

Furthermore has to be considered the attitude of the Government of the
United States concerning the question of the exportation of war
material. The Imperial Embassy hopes to agree with the Government of the
United States in assuming that, with regard to the question of
neutrality, there is not only the formal side to be considered, but also
the spirit in which neutrality is enforced.

Conditions in the present war are different from those in any former
wars. For this reason it is not justified to point at the fact that
perhaps in former wars Germany furnished belligerents with war material,
because in those former cases the question was not whether any war
material was to be furnished to the belligerents but merely which one of
the competing countries would furnish it. In the present war, with the
exception of the United States, all the countries capable of a
noteworthy production of war material are either at war themselves or
completing their armaments, and have accordingly prohibited the
exportation of war material. Therefore the United States of America is
the only country in a position to export war material. This fact ought
to give a new meaning to the idea of neutrality, independent of the
formal law.

Instead of that, and in contradiction with the real spirit of
neutrality, an enormous new industry of war materials of every kind is
being built up in the United States, inasmuch as not only the existing
plants are kept busy and enlarged, but also new ones are continually
founded.

The international agreements for the protection of the right of neutrals
originate in the necessity of protecting the existing industries of the
neutral countries. They were never intended to encourage the creation of
entirely new industries in neutral States, as, for instance, the new war
industry in the United States, which supplies only one party of the
belligerents.

In reality the American industry is supplying only Germany's enemies. A
fact which is in no way modified by the purely theoretical willingness
to furnish Germany as well, if it were possible.

If the American people desire to observe true neutrality, they will find
means to stop the exclusive exportation of arms to one side, or at
least to use this export trade as a means to uphold the legitimate trade
with Germany, especially the trade in foodstuffs. This spirit of
neutrality should appear the more j