licenses shall work a forfeiture of their rights to receive such food
and foodstuffs for this purpose, and that such food and foodstuffs will
not be requisitioned by the German Government for any purpose
whatsoever, or be diverted to the use of the armed forces of Germany.

Great Britain to agree: That food and foodstuffs will not be placed
upon the absolute contraband list, and that shipments of such
commodities will not be interfered with or detained by British
authorities, if consigned to agencies designated by the United States
Government in Germany for the receipt and distribution of such cargoes
to licensed German retailers for distribution solely to the
non-combatant population.

In submitting this proposed basis of agreement this Government does not
wish to be understood as admitting or denying any belligerent or neutral
right established by the principles of international law, but would
consider the agreement, if acceptable to the interested powers, a modus
vivendi based upon expediency rather than legal right, and as not
binding upon the United States either in its present form or in a
modified form until accepted by this Government.

BRYAN.


II.

GERMANY'S REPLY.

_The German reply, handed to the American Ambassador at Berlin,
follows:_