THE WORLD WAR: PERIOD OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY  293



could change their opinion that we only thought of the dollars and
cents at stake.
  He replied that he fully appreciated the friendly tone used by this
Government, as did his associates in England; the trouble was that
the general public could not understand the protests, which seemed
to be directed against measures of vital importance to Great Britain
in its struoxgle with Germany; that to the British public they seemed
cold-blooded and unsympathetic and contrary to what they expected
from their own flesh and blood. He said, that of course he considered
them all wrong about it, and entirely unreasonable, but that it was
nevertheless a fact.
  I said that the remedy to my mind lay with the press and the men
who moulded public opinion in Great Britain; that they should show
that the United States could not do otherwise than assert its rights as
a neutral, that the rights affected were those which pertained to com-
merce, and. therefore, to financial interests, and that the assertion of
rights was no criterion of public sentiment in this country, but a
necessary policy for a government which looked to the future, a policy
which Great Britain might after the war be very glad that this
Government adopted.
  Mr. Ratcliffe said that he would do all that he could to remove the
ill-feeling which prevailed in Great Britain, and that he knew that
American sentiment was largely in favor of the Allies, but that the
British public under the intense emotions aroused by the war would
be hard to convince. He, however, hoped for the best.
                                               ROBERT LANSING

763.72112/986i
  President Wilson to the Couznselor for the Department of State
                           (Lansing)

                                  WASHINGTON, 28 March, 1915.
  My DEAR MR. LANSING: Will you not be kind enough to look over
the enclosed 64 and tell me what you think of it?
  You will see what I have done. I have recast the note as a state-
ment and interpretation: so that there is no argument involved, but
it is meant to mean: We have the Order and the note accompanying
it. We cannot understand these as notice of illegal action. We shall
assume the contrary until actual things done compel us to look upon
the matter differently. Then we shall hold the British government
responsible in accordance with the well known principles of interna-
tional law, of which we now remind her, so that she may know just
what we understand them to be.

6 Not printed.