GERMANY'S LITTLE REQUEST DECLINED

Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 36, 10 February 1917, Page 5

GERMANY'S LITTLE REQUEST DECLINED

REFUSAL TO .GIVE GUARANTEES FOR FUTUBE. lAurtnlfM Mil N.Z. C«bl» Annotation.] AMSTERDAM, February ft DTfie German Foreign Office has asked Mr. Gerard, American Ambassador to sign a. proposal affirming- treaties guaranteeing nine months' protection before internment to Germans in America. Mr. Gerard declined, referring the German Government to the Spanish and Swedish intermediaries. * LONDON, February 9. Switzerland has agreed to take charge of German interests»in the United States. The American Embassy estimates that there are 2,600 Americans resident in Germany. The German Government continues to trejit American journalists properly, but hu announced that guarantees cannot be given for the future. NEGOTIATIONS PROCEEDING WITH AUSTRIA. [Auttnllin md N.Z. Ctble Auoolatton.] LONDON, February 9. Messages from Vienna state that conferences between the Foreign Office and the United States Ambassador continue in the attempt to prevent a rupture of diplomatic relations. Thus far there is no definite result. The effort to delay a rupture is based on the fact that submarine piracy is carried on under the German flag and that moreover there is little American shipping in the Mediterranean.