GERARD, James Watson, American diplomat and lawyer: b. Geneseo, N. Y., 1867. Educated at Wilson and Kellogg's School, New York city, Saint Paul's School, Concord, N. H., Columbia University and New York Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 1892 and commenced practising in New York, where he became counsel for several important corpora tions. He figured in a number of prominent cases and in 1907 was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York for the term 1908-21. Mr. Gerard joined the Na tional Guard of New York as a second lieuten ant, was made captain in 1892, and served on the staff of Gen. McCoskey Butt in the Spanish American War. In 1900 he was appointed quartermaster with the rank of major. He re signed his seat on the bench in July 1913, when President Wilson appointed him United States Ambassador to Berlin. The European War brought Mr. Gerard conspicuously before the public as the only representative of a great power left in Germany during the first two and-a-half years of the conflict. The manage ment of British interests in Germany were committed to his care when Sir Edward Gos chen, the British Ambassador, left Berlin. In his last report to the Foreign Office (8 Aug. 1914) Sir Edward made special mention of great assistance rendered to us all by my Amer ican colleague, Mr. Gerard, and his staff. Unde terred by the hooting and hisses with which he was often greeted by the mob on entering or leaving the embassy, his Excellency came re peatedly to see me to ask how he could help us,)' and that he had extricated many stranded British subjects from difficult situations some personal risk to himself?) For over two years it was Mr. Gerard's task to conduct the
diplomatic negotiations between the American and German governments on the thorny prob lems of international law involved in the Ger man submarine campaign and the Allies' block ade policy against Germany. During the time he also visited internment camps where British prisoners of war were held, and secured at least promises of improvement from the Ger man military authorities in the treatment of British prisoners. These episodes and the nu merous interviews he 'passed through with the Kaiser and German officials are described in the two books which he published in 1917 and 1918, (My Four Years in and 'Face to Face with On 3 Feb.. 1917 Count Bernstorff, German Ambassador in Washington, was handed his passports and Mr. Gerard was recalled from Germany. Two months later the United States declared war on Germany. Mr. Gerard retired from the diplo matic service in July 1917 and resumed his legal practice.