April 14—­Secretary Bryan announces that arrangements have been completed with the British Government by which two shiploads of dyestuffs may be shipped from Germany to the United States without interference from British warships.

April 15—­The text is made public of a letter written by Theodore Roosevelt to Mrs. George Rublee of Washington, in opposition to the principles advanced by the Woman’s Party for Constructive Peace, in which he says the platform is “both silly and base”; at a meeting in New York of the Central Federated Union a resolution is passed in favor of a general strike in those industries employed in producing munitions of war.

April 16—­The American Locomotive Company has practically completed arrangements with the Russian Government for the manufacture of $65,000,000 worth of shrapnel shells.

April 17—­The Hamburg-American steamship Georgia is transferred to American registry and renamed the Housatonic.

April 20—­French military authorities decide to abandon the charge of setting fire to La Touraine preferred against Raymond Swoboda, because of lack of evidence.

April 21—­The Government replies to the recent memorandum from Ambassador von Bernstorff on American neutrality; the American answer regrets use of language that seems to impugn our good faith, and it restates our position; it declares that we have at no time yielded any of our rights as a neutral, and that we cannot prohibit exportation of arms to belligerents, because to do so would be an unjustifiable breach of our neutrality; the State Department has cabled the American Consul at Warsaw to report fully on the present situation of Jews in Poland.

April 23—­The Telefunken wireless plant at Sayville, L.I., through which the German Government and its embassy at Washington chiefly communicate, has been trebled in power for the purpose of overcoming climatic conditions likely in Summer to be unfavorable for the handling of messages; Secretary Bryan is refusing to issue passports to Americans who wish to visit belligerent countries in Europe for sightseeing purposes.

April 28—­Secretary Bryan replies to the German note on the sinking of the American ship William P. Frye; the answer declares that the destruction of the vessel was “unquestionably” a violation of existing treaties between the United States and Prussia; the answer states that the American Government does not believe the matter should go before a prize court, as suggested by the German note.

April 29—­Samuel Pearson, who was a Boer General in the Boer war and is an American citizen, begins an action in Wisconsin aimed at preventing shipment of munitions of war from the United States to the enemies of Germany; a complaint is filed on Pearson’s behalf under the so-called “Discovery” statute of Wisconsin, to obtain information whether the Allis-Chalmers Company and others have entered into a conspiracy with the Bethlehem Steel Company and others to manufacture and ship shrapnel shells to European belligerents contrary to Wisconsin law.