metal.

In the examination being conducted by the Navy Department the
metallurgical nature of the fragments will be ascertained after their
size, shape, contour and character have been very carefully studied by
a large number of naval experts who will endeavor to ascertain not
only the character of the naval engine of destruction these fragments
once fitted, but also the particular portion of torpedo or mine the
fragments constituted. These studies and tests are to be conducted
partly in the Navy Department, partly at the Washington Navy Yard,
partly at the naval proving grounds at Indian Head, Md., and partly at
the experimental station at the Naval Academy at Annapolis.

All the naval experts in Washington qualified to have a hand in the
tests will be utilized. There are some naval experts outside of
Washington, within a few days' reach of the city, who will be summoned
here to participate in the examination. It is understood the
examination will continue about ten days before any report can be
formulated for submission to the State Department.

While this unusual care is being exercised in the tests of the
fragments, it is understood that there is nothing in the conclusions
thus far drawn in the reports to indicate that the fragments were once
part of a mine, and that the reports as they stand indicate that the
Nebraskan was hit by a torpedo. This is the conclusion the
Administration is expected to draw from the evidence unless the
technical examination of the fragments nullifies this evidence.

Dr. Meyer-Gerhard's Mission

_In a cable dispatch from Berlin, via London, dated June 2, 1915, the
following complaint of lack of official news from Washington and of
means for obtaining it was made known by the German Government:_

The German Foreign Office is unable to communicate with Count von
Bernstorff, the Ambassador at Washington, except by wireless in plain
language, and even this mode of communication is uncertain during
periods when the static conditions of the atmosphere are unfavorable.

Reports which reach the newspapers are regarded with suspicion, not
only because they come exclusively through British channels, but on
account of their contradictory character.

One set of reports intimates that the German counter-proposals have
been found to harmonize with Mr. Bryan's plan of providing for a
period of investigation in cases of international conflict, while
other advices reproduce various Americ