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PART III

WHY AMERICA ENTERED THE WAR

CHAPTER XIV

THE FIRST SUBMARINE CONTROVERSY

OUR controversy with Germany began on February 4, 1915, at which time the German Government issued a proclamation declaring the waters around the British Isles a war zone. All enemy ships found in this zone on and after February 18, 1915, were to be "destroyed without its being always possible to avert the dangers threatening the crews and passengers on that account." The proclamation went on to recite that even neutral ships would be "exposed to danger in the war zone as in view of the misuse of neutral flags ordered on January 1st by the British Government and of the accidents of naval war, it cannot always be avoided to strike even neutral ships in attacks that are directed at enemy ships." The effort would be made to destroy all enemy merchant ships in the war zone even if it were not always "possible to avert the dangers which may menace persons and merchandise." Neutral powers were "accordingly forewarned not to continue to entrust their crews, passengers, or merchandise to such vessels."

war zone.

In short, this was a warning that neutrals would run a serious risk of losing their lives and their ships if they should venture into the The excuse given for this defiance of international law was that it was a retaliatory measure necessitated by Britain's restrictions on German trade. Great Britain, it was alleged, had violated international law by declaring the North Sea a war area, by extending unreasonably the lists of contraband of war, and by refusing to abide by the Declaration of London.1

The United States Government felt that it could not acquiesce in this infringement of its rights as a neutral and so protested vigorously

1 Jour. (9), 83-5.

The Declaration of London is a codification of the rules of naval warfare as agreed upon by representatives of the ten leading maritime states at a conference held in London in the winter of 1908-09. The Declaration, however, has not been ratified by all the countries represented at the conference and therefore does not have the binding force of international law. Great Britain was one of the powers which had not ratified the principles of the Declaration, although her representatives at the conference had signed it. In the beginning of the war our State Department asked all the belligerents if they would agree to be bound by the principles of the Declaration of London provided that their opponents would make the same pledge. The Teutonic allies replied that they would accept the Declaration on these conditions, but the Entente Allies declined to do so. The reason for this refusal was that Great Britain, being the strongest naval power of the belligerents and the one upon whom the restrictions of the Declaration would bear most heavily, objected to certain clauses, mainly those dealing with contraband of war. After this refusal our Government announced that it would not consider the articles of the Declaration as binding but would fall back upon the principles of international law. Jour. (9), 1-8; Rogers, America's Case against Germany, 41-43; War Cyclopedia.

against the proposed policy in a note dated February 10, 1915. It took the position that a belligerent's rights as to neutral ships on the high seas are confined to "visit and search unless a blockade is proclaimed and effectively maintained." And inasmuch as the proclamation did not provide for that, Germany had no warrant under international law to sink an American ship. A warning as to the consequences in case American ships or lives were destroyed was conveyed to the Imperial Government in strong terms as follows:

If the commanders of German vessels of war should act upon the presumption that the flag of the United States was not being used in good faith and should destroy on the high seas an American vessel or the lives of American citizens, it would be difficult for the Government of the United States to view the act in any other light than as an indefensible violation of neutral rights which it would be very hard indeed to reconcile with the friendly relations now so happily subsisting between the two Governments.

If such a deplorable situation should arise, the Imperial German Government can readily appreciate that the Government of the United States would be constrained to hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities and to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property and to secure to American citizens the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high seas.2

The reply of Von Jagow, German foreign

2 Jour. (9), 86–88.

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