The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-08
Reply to Kaiser Has Not Been Subjected to Hours Unnecessary Delay Since It Was Drafted
ANXIOUS TO AVOID
 ALL POSSIBILITY OF
 MISUNDERSTANDING
Legal Officers of Note Re- wise It to Cover All Points of International Law. More Delay Expected

Washington, June 7.-President Wilson let it be known today that the note the United States is to send to Germany with respect to submarine warfare had been prepared with the utmost expedition and had not been subjected to an hours unnecessary de- lay since it was first drafted.
 The Presidents desire to have the document state explicitly the position of the United States so that it cannot possibly be misunderstood abroad nr invite protracted discussion is chief ly responsible for the fact that the note has not gone.
 Legal officers of the governm ent examined the note today and sent It back to the President With some changes. It may require further con sideration by the President and his cabinet tomorrow and high officials d.d not know tonight just when it would be cabled. On the highest authority, however, 1t was stated that as soon as the President regarded the com munication as satisfactory in phraseol- ogy 1t would be transmitted to Ambas- sador Gerard.
 Questions of such serious moment are involved the President is anxious that the communication not only shall meet his own wishes but be unimpeach- able from the point of view of inter- national law experts.
 Lusitania Unarmed
 While the President has been at work on the document. special gov- ernment agents have tcorroborated in every detail the statement of the first American note that the Lusitania was unarmed. At the same time Myer Ger hard, personal envoy of Count Von Bernstorff, the German ambassador, has been voyaging to Germany carry- ing important messages from the Ger man embassy concerning the American point of view on submarine warfare
 Orchards s trip, however, was declared in high official quarters to have been merely coincidence and in no way to have influenced the progress of the note
 officials familiar with the situation dissipated the notion that any in fluences had arisen to delay the send ing of the communication.
 When the document is finally made public, officials said it not only would satisfy American public opinion but would place squarely, before Germany the issue as to whether the imperial government intends to adhere to hith- erto accepted principles of interna- tional law on maratime warfare.
 The President has been displeased by numerous detailed accounts that have been published of what the note would contain when he himself had I4l sfc fc Iln IS anxious that misconceptions of the position of the United States shall not be cabled abroad and that the Amer ican people suspend Judgment until they read the text.
 Hope for Adjustment
 To what extent the German view point here regarding the situation be- tween the United States and Germany is that held at Berlin is not clear but certainly the general view in German quarters here is that the recent trend of events gives hopes of friendly ad- iustment. This Is based not alone on the probable course of the German side of the negotia ations but also on the American course which is regarded as developing along lines which will per- init of satisfactory conclusion.
 The most promising formula for a solution, according to the German view point, is one which would combine an agreement on the status of the Lusi- tania as an armed or unarmed ship and also a general agreement guar anteeing immunity from attack there after to all unarmed ships carrying passengers.
 As to the Lusitania. the German po- sition thus far has been that she was an armed ship, according to the in
 tContinued on Page Seven.)