As time goes on it is hoped that it will be possible to improve further the necessarily austere conditions of the military discipline to which the prisoners are bound to be subjected, and every endeavour is being made already to rectify any mistakes that may have occurred, both in the arrest of persons who should properly be exempt, and in the régime, which, through its hurried organisation, could not fail to contain a certain number of defects at the outset.... Into the case for and against general internment I do not propose to enter; it has nothing to do with the main purpose of this book. It does, however, concern that purpose to point out first that the general internment of resident enemy nationals (whatever its justification in any particular case) is contrary to modern usage, and second that the order for general internment was given first not in Germany, but in Britain. The popular view on this subject is erroneous. The German order was issued as a “reprisal,”[15] but, once issued, it was carried out with dispatch, a dispatch which was, of course, easier because of the comparatively small number of British subjects in Germany. It will, I think, be useful to quote some further letters. The first document is an extract from a telegram received, _via_ Copenhagen, by the U.S. Embassy in London on November 7, 1914. The telegram is from the Ambassador (Mr. Gerard) at Berlin, and conveys the representations of Mr. Chandler Anderson, of the American Embassy in London, who was at the moment in Berlin. Anderson says: Tell Foreign Office that there is no compulsory military service required by German law for men over 45, and any men over that age serving in the army are volunteers. Agreement to release all men over 45 would produce better understanding, refusal is regarded as questioning truth of their assurances, which were endorsed by our Ambassador. Would like to settle these matters while here, and want to leave on Tuesday or Wednesday. Am arranging to have someone from this Embassy return with me to report, for information of Foreign Office here, about concentration camp and reasons for internment of civilians, in order to establish common basis for their treatment and provisions and clothing furnished and pay of officers, on the understanding that accounts will be balanced at close of war or at stated intervals.—GERARD, Berlin. American Minister, Copenhagen. The following documents deserve careful consideration: _Memorandum communicated by American Embassy._ November 9, 1914. The American Embassy has the honour to submit the following copy of a telegram which the Ambassador at Berlin has sent to the Department of State at Washington: