File No. 763.72/2478
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Germany (Gerard)
Your No. 2289, May 25, 4 p. m. The President directs me to send you the following:
Please point out kindly and unofficially, but very earnestly, to the Foreign Office that the conditions now prevailing in the marine war zone are rapidly becoming intolerable to the whole world, that their rectification is in the interest of both parties to the present conflict, and that this Government, while it has nothing to propose as between the belligerents, but will confine itself to the protection of its own clear rights, will act with pleasure in conveying any proposals that either the one government or the other has to make for the correction of the present conditions fraught as they are with universal danger.
Do not mistake instructions in our 1723, May 23, 2 p. m.1 We did not state that the new Ministry in England would be willing, but said only that we had reason to hope that they would be.