reply. The friendship between the people of the United
States and the people of Germany is so warm and of such long standing,
the ties which bind them to one another in amity are so many and so
strong, that this Government feels under a special compulsion to speak
with perfect frankness, when any occasion arises which seems likely to
create any misunderstanding, however slight or temporary, between those
who represent the Governments of the two countries.

It will be a matter of gratification to me if I have removed from your
Excellency's mind any misapprehension you may have been under regarding
either the policy or the spirit and purposes of the Government of the
United States.

Its neutrality is founded upon the firm basis of conscience and
good-will.

Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration.

W.J. BRYAN.

Munitions From Neutrals

[Colloquy in the House of Commons, May 4, 1915.]

Sir E. Grey, in reply to Sir A. Markham, (L., Mansfield,) said: The
United States Government have not at any time during the present war
supplied any war material of any kind to his Majesty's Government, and I
do not suppose that they have supplied any of the belligerents. It has
always been a recognized legitimate practice, and wholly consistent with
international law, for manufacturers in a neutral country to sell
munitions of war to belligerents. They were supplied in this way from
Germany to Russia during the Russo-Japanese war, and from Germany to
Great Britain during the Boer war, and are no doubt being supplied in
the same way from manufacturers in neutral countries to belligerents
now.

Mr. MacNeill (N., South Donegal)--Has not the rule always been, before
The Hague Conferences at all, that subjects of neutral nations are
allowed to supply munitions of war at their own risk?

Sir E. Grey--It is wholly consistent with international law that that
practice should go forward, and if there be any question of departure
from neutrality I think it will be, not in permitting that practice, but
in interfering with it. [Cheers.]

Germany and the Lusitania

By Charles W. Eliot

_President Emeritus of Harvard University._

That the sinking of the Lusitania was an act which outraged
not only the existing conventions of the civilized world but
the moral feelings of present civilized society is the view
put forth in his letter to THE NEW YORK TIMES, appearing May