If they stop, how can they explain their stopping?
The people might rend them.

The ingenious loophole discovered by House is--mere moonshine, viz., the freedom of the seas in war.

That is a one-sided proposition unless they couple with it the freedom of the land in war also, which is nonsense.

Nothing can be done, then, until some unfavourable military event brings a new mind to the Germans.

Peace talk, therefore, is yet mere moonshine.