'"TfWl,
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The Commoaer
VOL. 16, NO. 5
10
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The Submarine Issue
Text of Official Notes Passed Between United States and Germany
TEXT OF NOTE TO BERLIN
A Washington dispatch, dated April 19, says:
Following is the full text of President Wilson's
noto to Germany:
"You aro instructed to deliver to the secre
tary of foreign affairs a communication reading
as follows:
"I did not fall to transmit immediately, by
telegraph, to my government your Excellency's
noto of tho 10th instant in regard to certain at
tacks by Gorman submarines, and particularly
in regard to tho disastrous explosion which on
March 24 last wrecked tho French steamship
Sussox in tho English channel. I have now tho
honor to deliver, under instructions from my
government, tho following reply to your Excel
lency: "Information now in tho possession of the
government of tho United States fully establish
es the facts in tho caso of the Sussex, and tho
inferences which my government has drawn
from that information it regards as confirmed
by tho circumstances sot forth in your Excel
lency's note of tho 10th Instant. On the 24th
of March, 1910, at about 2:50 o'clock in the af
tornoon, tho unarmed steamer Sussox, with 325
or more pasengors on board, among whom were
a number of Amorlcan citizens, was torpedoed
whilo crossing from Folkestono to Dieppe. The
Sussex had never been armed; was a vessel
known to bo habitually used only for tho con
veyance of passengers across tho English chan
nel, and was not following tho route taken by
troop ships or supply ships. About 80 of her
passengers, noncombatants of all ages and sexes,
Including citizens of the United States, were
killed or injured.
THE SUSSEX TORPEDOED I3Y A GERMAN
SUBMARINE
"A careful, detailed and scruplously impar
tial investigation by naval and military officers
of the United States has. conclusively established
tho fact that the Sussox was torpedoed without
warning or summons to surrender and that the
torpedo by which she waB struck was of German
manufacture.
"In tho view of tho government of the
United States, these facts from the first made
tho conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a
German submarino unavoidable. It now con
siders that conclusion substantiated by the
statements of your Excellency's note. A full
statement of the facts upon which tho govern
ment o the United States has based its conclu
sion is inclosed. f
"Tho government of tho United States, after
having given caroful consideration of tho note
of the Imperial government of tho 10th of April
I?hv fi i f1?10 that th0 Session made upon
L B.ta-teniont8 and proposals contained in
JUL11! tua Uo Imperial government has
? lappP0fj the gravity of the situation
which has resulted, not alone from tho attack
on the Sussox, but from tho whole method and
character of submarine warfare as disclosed by
the unrestrained practice of the commanders of
German undorsea craft during the last 12
months and more in the indiscriminate destruc-
States might find it possible to hope that the
officer who was responsible for that act had w ii
fully violated his orders or had been cr iminaliv
negligent in taking none of the precaiiHo w
prescribed and that tho ends of Eft, lAey
satisfied by imposing upon him an adeq f "
IKS' TPletl with a rmal disavowal Sf"
tho wn,PaynlCnt 0f a suitable indemX by
tho Imperial government. But, though th nr
tack upon the Sussex was manifestiv w Lfl n ,
duetine it. it nll1)lllly (loes 2? t?m0-
9ELIBERATE SPIRIT OF DESTRUCTION
On tho contrfirv tim .
United States is force 1 bv rW tho
oimiA fw n ." u uy recent events to con-
one of the most extreme and most distressing
Instances, of the deliberate method and spirit of
indiscriminate destruction pf merchant vessels
of all sorts, nationalities and destinations, which
have become more and more unmistakable as
the activity of German undersea vessels of war
has in recent months been quickened and ex
tended. "The Imperial government will recall that
when, in February, 1915, it announced its in
tentions of treating the waters surrounding
Great Britain and Ireland as embraced within
the seat of war, and of destroying all merchant
ships owned by its enemies that might be found
within that zone of danger, and warned all ves
sels, neutral as well as belligerent, to keep out
of the waters thus prescribed, or to enter them
at their peril, the government of tho United
States earnestly protested. It took the position
that such a policy could not be pursued without
constant gross and palpable violations of the ac
cepted laws of nations, particularly if submarine
craft were to be employed as its instruments, in
asmuch as the rules prescribed by that law,
rules founded on the principles of humanity and
established for the protection of the lives of
noncombatants at sea, could not in the nature
of the case be observed by such vessels.
"It based its protest on the ground that per
sons of neutral nationality and vessels of neu
tral ownership would be exposed to extreme and
intolerable risks and that no right to close any
part of the high seas could lawfully be asserted
by the Imperial government in the circumstances
then existing. The law of nations in these mat
tors, upon which the government of the United
States based that protest, is not of recent origin
or founded upon merely arbitrary principles set
up by convention. It is based, on the contrary,
upon manifest principles of humanity, and has
long been established, with the approval and by
the express assent of all civilized nations.
PROMISE OF PRECAUTIONS NOT FUL
FILLED "The Imperial government, notwithstanding,
persisted in carrying out the policy announced,
express'ng the hope that the dangers involved,
at any rate to neutral vessels, would be reduced
to a minimum by the instructions which it had
issued to the commanders of its submarines, and
assuring the government of the United States
that it would take every possible precaution,
both to resnect the rights of neutrals and to
safeguard the lives of non-combatants
"In pursuance of this policy of submarine
warfare against the commerce of its adversaries
thus announced and thus entered upon, despite
SfifS J?nf Pr?feSt f the evernment of the
United States, the commanders of the Imperial
government's undersea vessels have carried on
practices of ruthless destruction, which have
made it more and more evident, as the months
toJndTlJf7, "? e Imperial government has
found it impracticable to put any such re-
taS ?oSputn them U had hPe and pro"
hasAlven ?tnAi!a in the Imperial government
nas given its solemn assurances to thp v
ment of the United States that at leaa?SoLSr
ships would not be thus dealt with and vPn
has repeatedly permitted its undersea command
?t0udisre.gard th08e assurances with entire
impunity. As recently as Fphnmrv w i
notice that it would 'regard all arSed merchTn?
of nVeutSrea? S" "
to surrender before hJE.TES1 and ""noned
sometimes their passengers and ml irpedfed;
vouchsafed , ??.:5 and .crews nave been
warning has been given, no escape even to the
ship's boats allowed to those on board. Great
liners like the Lusitania and Arabic and mere
passenger boats like the Sussex have been at
tacked without a moment's warning, often be
fore they have oven become, awaro that they
were in the presence of an armed ship of the
enemy, and the lives of non-combatants, pas
sengers and crew have been destroyed wholesale,
and in a manner which tho government of the
United States can not but regard as wanton and
without the slightest color of justification. No
limit of any kind has, in fact, been set to the
indiscriminate pursuit and destruction of mer
chantmen of all kinds and nationalities within
the waters which the Imperial government has
chosen to designate -as lying within the seat of
war. The roll of Americans who have lost their
lives upon ships thus attacked and destroyed has
grown, month by month, until the ominous toll
hao mounted into tho hundreds.
PATIENCE OF THE UNITED STATES AT AN
END
"The government of tho United States has been
very patient. At every stage of this distressing
experience of tragedy after tragedy it has sought
to be governed by the most thoughtful considera
tion of the extraordinary circumstances of an
unprecedented war and to be guided by senti
ments of very genuine friendship for the people
and government of Germany. It has accepted
tho successive explanations and assurances of
tho Imperial government as, of course, given in
entire sincerity and good faith, and has hoped,
even against hope, that it would prove to be
possible for the Imperial government 30 to order
and control the acts of its naval commanders as
to square its policy with the recognized prin
ciples of humanity as embodied in the law of
nations. It has made every allowance for un
precedented conditions, and has been willing to
wMt until the facts became unmistakable and
were susceptible of only one interpretation.
"It now owes it to a just regard for its own
right to say to the Imperial government th-it
that time has come. It has become painfully evi
dent to it that the position which it tpok at the
very outset is inevitable, namely, the use of sub
marines for the destruction of an enemy's com
merce is, of necessity, because of the very char
acter of the vessels employed and the very meth
ods of attack which their employment, of course,
involves, utterly incompatible with the prin
ciples of humanity, tho long-established and in-
Sr0Vm tlble. rigllts of netrals and the sacred
immunities of noncombatants.
-rnmni' ! Sti" the purpose of the Imperial gov
?n?S ? prosecute relentless and indiscrim
inate warfare against vessels of commerce by
the use of .submarines without regard" to what
stL?Znmen0i United States must con
l?JnL Ted and indisPtable rules of in
dletipS of iaW a1d the unlversally recognized
TTnif of Q?f hTanity' tne government of the
ratfhert ieAS,at laSt frced to the concision
tt2- 1? ne. courso ifc can Pursue,
immert nt.lv 1 Imperial government should now
o?X nrL?eCla ?nd effect an abandonment
aLinst nS,imethd,8 0f marine warfare
against passenger and freight-carrying vessels
?o cnXta?? f thG Un"ed States ca have
the Ge1-mR SeVerdiplomatlc relations with
sove?n? n?Pire a togstber. This action the
wth X Ln AhG ?nited Statea contemplates
train f f ?a,test. 'reluctae, but feels con
SSS tSi SSff taty and the
TEXT OF GER1a71 TO AMERICAN
NOTE
FrUayaB1"' Vi& L'
German "ioZiV1',0 text ot the n of the
SlS' '". reply t0 the American
Ttaa?vtg,Sr!lrlM warfaro- delivered on
secret ZT' """
German Kovernl' " hellaU of ' perial
to Tffis V.-JE1' has th0' oor to present
to the note o( Anril 20 rJn following reply
German suhmarinarmfeT"1"8 the ndUCt f
I'll n yk.
opeTnavaT antE 6,"t "S-.t-.".
Proper naval tCSS?l I,anded. over to toe
Wnltqa States is forced bv ?ece 1 , . tn0 voohsafed the poor seourllv ? hi ",ave ,)e0,1 the evidence concern he th S, V lnTe"eation
cludo that it is C3W oneyisS. T"iS ?.co- to the shinTboats hl?f Ln"S?! to nicated by the ZvernmL, !!? " -
---, .. IUOUEO aent t0 the boUom B -- -- uiw was Judging by tho results that 7JB ".S'..?SS:
u-nerto yielded, the German goverWntta
iiut again and again
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