Account of the Resignation of William J. Bryan as American Secretary
of State
True to the intimation in his note to President Wilson, Mr.
Bryan has made public in full his reasons for resigning
while American relations with Germany were strained. His
statements are given herewith, together with comments in
Europe and America on the causes and consequences of Mr.
Bryan's act. The German reply to President Wilson's note of
May 13 on the Lusitania case and the American rejoinder of
June 9; the sending to Berlin of Dr. Anton Meyer-Gerhard, as
arranged by Ambassador von Bernstorff in the White House on
June 4, in order to explain more fully to the German
Government the American policy and public feeling in this
country; the Stahl perjury case, relating to the German
charge that the Lusitania was armed; the question whether
the American steamer Nebraskan was torpedoed on May 26 in
the German submarine "war zone"; the controversy over
exportations to the Allies of American munitions of war: the
agitation for a stronger army and navy in the United States,
and the meeting in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, on June
17, when 109 of the foremost men in the United States took
steps toward forming a League of Peace among all the nations
of the earth--these, as recorded below, form a new chapter
in American history.
THE GERMAN MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS TO THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR AT
BERLIN.
[TELEGRAM.]