THE WORLD WAR: PERIOD OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY 403



is the only neutral nation affected and thirty miles is left along the
coast.
  We take it for granted that you would desire to have that sentence
left out, but I bring it to your attention so that it can be inserted if
you think it best.
  In talking over the phone with Mr. Tumulty I said I was very much
pleased with the statement you are going to have made-meaning
the newspaper statement which you have prepared-and I found that
he did not know about it. I told him he would find it out from you
and did not attempt to give him the contents of it. I was sorry
afterwards that I had said anything about it. While I presume he
would not mention the matter you might, if you think it necessary,
caution him.
  With assurances [etc.]                           W. J. BRYAN

763.72/1757t
            President Wilson to the Secretary of State

                                     WASHINGTON, 13 May, 1915.
  MY DEAR MIR. SECRETARY: Since I expressed my approval of the
statement you suggested for the press I have heard something, in-
directly, from the German Embassy which convinces me that we
would lose all chance of bringing Germany to reason if we in any
way or degree indicated to them, or to our own public, that this note
was merely the first word in a prolonged debate. I will tell you what
I have in mind when I do not have to write it.
  In the meantime, I beg that you will pardon me for changing my
mind thus. I am sure that it is the safer course, the one more likely
to produce the results we are all praying for. Please withdraw the
message (the supplementary statement) altogether. If we say any-
thing of the kind it must be a little later, after the note has had its
first effect.60
      Faithfully Yours,
                                                         W. W.

763.72/1757c
            The Secretary of State to President Wilson

                                     WASHINGTON, May 13, 1915.
  MY DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: When I looked at the last sentence of the
note to Germany I was struck with the fact that there is no concluding

° In a message to the President written on the same day, concerning another
matter, Secretary Bryan added the following postscript: "I am very sorry
that
your judgment is against using the statement you prepared this morning. I
fear the use the jingo element will make of the German note." (File
No.
763.72/1757b.)