When, in the seclusion of his own soul, he had fixed upon his policy, he proceeded in the same way to put it into words. It is a thing perhaps without precedent before the administration of President Wilson that the note to the German government, which has become a historic document, was written originally by the President in shorthand. After he had set down the communication in this way he transcribed it on his own typewriter. No official or clerk of the White House had any part in the preparation of the document until after it had been presented to the members of the Cabinet. Not even Secretary Bryan saw it in advance of that time. THE NOTE TO GERMANY The full text of President Wilson’s note, dated May 13, and communicated over the name of Secretary of State Bryan, is as follows: _“The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador at Berlin_: “Please call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and after reading to him this communication, leave with him a copy: “In view of the recent acts of the German authorities in violation of American rights on the high seas, which culminated in the torpedoing and sinking of the British steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which over one hundred American citizens lost their lives, it is clearly wise and desirable that the government of the United States and the imperial German government should come to a clear and full understanding as to the grave situation which has resulted. “The sinking of the British passenger steamship Falaba by a German submarine on March 28, through which Leon C. Thresher, an American citizen, was drowned; the attack on April 28 on the American vessel Cushing by a German aeroplane; the torpedoing on May 1 of the American vessel Gulflight by a German submarine, as a result of which two or more American citizens met their death; and, finally, the torpedoing and sinking of the steamship Lusitania, constitute a series of events which the government of the United States has observed with growing concern, distress and amazement. ATTACKS CALLED CONTRARY TO RULES OF WARFARE