Arizona republican., 1915-07-07
Germany Informally Sub mits to United States States Draft of Its Reply to the American Note of June 2.
ACCEPTANCE WOULD {.
 BE TO SACRIFICE
Impression Is That Ambas- sador Gerard Will Be h. structcd Not To Express Views Until Official Re ply Is Received.
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ASSOCIATED PREas pIsPArcH1
 | WASHINGTON. July 6.-Germany submitted informally to the United [ States tentative draft of it's reply
 to the note of June 9. which asks assurances that American rights oA the seas viii not be further violated. 1 High officials. who carefully exam ined the note, are practically agreed 1 that the United States cannot ex- press its approval If the note in its present form, without sacrificing i'm portant neutral rights. The impress sion was obtained tonight in reliable quarters that the government will 1 probably instruct Ambassador Gerard to declin. to express any view until a formal reply is delivered. II is understood the note imposed condi- tions such as the marking of belIi- bercnt vessels carrying Americans. notification by the United States to Germany If the date of departure
 and character of such vessels. and inspection insuriny thc non-carriage of munitions of war.
 The draft Was shown Gerard with
 an idea of eliciting from him an ex-
 pression of opinion. He promptly asked instructions from Washington las Co whether the United States
 woull make concessions. The pres
 ident had been advised of the sit nation in several long messages
 Secretary Lansing took the position
 that it was not proper foy him to
 dlsel,-e Germany'- position inform ally reported without the authority Of tua German government Ha
 
 chang, of views. The president ha, before him the views of several cab met officers. some of whom believe it essential to make clear to tho German foreign office that the
 United States can make no con cessI0ns from position based on the accepted rules of international law. and naval prize codes of civilized nations. Whether the president does or nos finally decide to have the Am hassaGor tell the German govern ment informally the views of the United States on the rough draft of the note, II is clearly apparent that important changes will be necessary iu Germanys attitude before 1t can he hoped that the formal reply will remove from the negotiations. the critical aspect they assumed One cf the messages from Amba ssador Gerard was somewhat earbIed in transmission and the meaning was not clear. Early in the day il was believed by some officials that the suggestion made might offer a basis for negotiations. since it is evident that Germany is endeavoring to ob- tain in advance what opinion the United States will be so that tho final draft will be certain of ac- ceptance This caused feeling of optimism but the arrival of addition al messages indicated that Germany is not prepared to yield to the in- sistrncc of the United States on tights under international law but is disposed 10 ask for q compromise and concession involving the sur render of important neutral rights. The situation is not regarded by many persons as hopeless because it is believed in well informed quarters that the mere fact of submitting a tentative draft of the German reply may be construed as meaning that Cie rmary might make further changes in case the position of the United States is found to be unalterable
 There is no evidence that Berlin of ficials believe public opinion in the nited States has been divided since the resignation of Secretary Bryan. and that public sentiment here favors compromising the issue. During the pendencv If the negotiations the an parent cessation of torpedoing with out warning enemy ships and the absence of mistaken attacks on American vessels have produced a good impression in official quarters here
 The American government has no intention of discussing with Germanv the attacks on such ships as the Ar menian and the Anglo Californian which were shelled by German sub marines after making repeated at tempts to escape Although a num- Der of Americans perished as con sequence. the United States recog- nizes tha, German commanders un- ger the circumstances were iusti- fled. It is generally understood that there will be no effort to obtain inn munity from attack for ships primar- fly engaged in contraband traffic if the latter follow q general policy of resisting captures. But what the American government has been un- @ ole to obtain thus far is an ex- plicit agreement that Germany would
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