THE WORLD WAR: PERIOD OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 723



recent note to Germany was drafted. I hope and believe that war
may be avoided because of the change which has taken place in the
German method of submarine attack. If, however, there should be
another passenger ship sunk with Americans on board, a sentiment in
this country would result which would be very difficult to check.
  There is another agency operating against a radical and rigid atti-
tude toward Germany, and that is the general public feeling against
Great Britain on account of her so called blockade and the interrup-
tion of trade between neutral countries. This offsets to an extent the
feeling against Germany or, at least, keeps the balance of sentiment
more or less equal. It is not equal for two reasons: one is, the pre-
ponderance of American sympathy is with the Allies, and, in the
second place, the illegal acts of Germany cause loss of life while the
illegal acts of Great Britain cause loss of property. This, briefly, is
the situation here and whatever I should say further would be purely
speculative.
  Thanking you for your letter [etc.]       ROBERT LANSING

763.72/2141i
    The Ambassador in Italy (Page) to the Secretary of State

                                        ROME, Augu-st 01, 1915.
  My DEAR AIR. SECRETARY: Before this reaches you Italy will prob-
ably be at open war with Turkey, as she has substantially been in
fact for some little time, though no declaration of war has yet been
made, so far as is known here. It would be more proper to say,
perhaps, that Turkey is at war with Italy, as Italy has committed
no act of war against Turkey. Whether this will change in any way
the situation in the Balkans remains to be seen. The fact is that
the Balkan muddle is so great that no one appears to know what
the final result there will be. It is only known that Italy and the
other Powers of the Quadruplice are doing what they can to bring
them into concert; a thing so difficult as to seem quite impossible.
The Balkan Powers have all been tremendously staggered by the
Russian situation, and even though Venizelos should resume the
reins of Government in Greece, it is hardly expected that he will
move at present to have Greece enter the lists. There is much talk
of Roumania coming in with Russia, but few expect her to do so
unless Russia shall prove able to recover and make head against
Germany in the south, which so far there is no sign of her being
able to do. Bulgaria presents a somewhat different situation, and
is so important to the Allies that they must be doing everything in
their power by promises and whatever means are at their disposal
to induce Bulgaria to join them. If they could induce her to do