THE WORLD WAR: PERIOD OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY  273



763.7. 2/1554i
             President Wilson to the Secretary of State

                                                  4 MARCH, 1915.
  MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY: The green paper despatch attached here-
to 47 seems to me abrupt in expression and also a bit difficult to inter-
pret as it stands. I therefore beg that, in its stead, you will send to
Ambassador Page at London Mr. Lansing's letter to you (also
attached) ,47a as I have taken the liberty of altering it.48 It is both
lucid and conveys the matter in just the right tone of inquiry.
      Faithfully Yours,
                                                          W.W.

763.72/1588
Newspaper Text of the British Order in Council of March 11, 1915,
  With Comments by the Counselor for the Department of State
  (Lansing) 49

  LONDON, March 15[, 1915].-The text of Great Britain's order in
council declaring war on German commerce was made public today.
The order reads:
  "Whereas the German government has issued certain orders which
in violation of the usages of war purport to declare that the waters
surrounding the United Kingdom are a military area in which all
British and allied merchant vessels will be destroyed, irrespective of
the safety and the lives of the passengers and the crews, and in which
neutral shipping will be exposed to similar danger in view of the
uncertainties of naval warfare;
  "And whereas in the memorandum accompanying the said orders
neutrals are warned against intrusting crews, passengers or goods to
British or allied ships;
  [It does not appear that a vessel engaged in the trade sought to be
interrupted becomes liable to forfeiture in the Prize Court for any
act committed in such trade.
  The 0. in C. applies only to cargoes.
  This preamble purports to furnish an excuse for the promulgation
of the 0. in C.
  It comes to this: Because Germany menaces neutral vessels going to
Great Britain, Great Britain menaces all neutral trade with Germany.

' Supra.
47 Ante, p. 270.
'8This was done; for the telegram as sent, see Foreign Relations, 1915, supp.,
p. 132.
' Mr. Lansing's comments are here printed in brackets following quotations
from the newspaper text of the Order in Council. For official text of the
Order,
see ibid.. n. 144.
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