is to be considered as an ordinary unarmed merchant vessel. The Imperial Government begs in this connection to point out that the Lusitania was one of the largest and fastest English commerce steamers, constructed with Government funds as auxiliary cruisers, and is expressly included in the navy list published by British Admiralty. It is moreover known to the Imperial Government from reliable information furnished by its officials and neutral passengers that for some time practically all the more valuable English merchant vessels have been provided with guns, ammunition, and other weapons, and reinforced with a crew specially practiced in manning guns. According to reports at hand here, the Lusitania when she left New York undoubtedly had guns on board which were mounted under decks and masked. Lastly, the Imperial Government must specially point out that on her last trip the Lusitania, as on earlier occasions, had Canadian troops and munitions on board, including no less than 5,400 cases of ammunition destined for the destruction of brave German soldiers who are fulfilling with self-sacrifice and devotion their duty in the service of the Fatherland."

These statements were later proved untrue, though the German embassy hastened to procure a witness through Koenig, head of the Hamburg-American secret service, who swore

lic of the accuracy of his statement issued in explanation:

"The President and I agree in purpose; we desire a peaceful solution of the dispute which has arisen between the United States and Germany."

Germany's refusal to make immediate amends after this unparalleled offense would have made peace impossible had this not been the case, for in spite of the directness of our second communication, Berlin's answer of July 8 was rambling and not responsive. It insisted on the traditional friendliness of Germany to the American people; reasserted that she was waging a war of self-defense; and explained that the loss of life could hardly be chargeable to her. The reason for the rapid sinking of the vessel was due to circumstances of a very peculiar kind, especially "the presence on board of large quantities of highly explosive materials."

Her inability to understand the issue is perhaps nowhere more strikingly brought out than in the amazing statement that "the case of

the Lusitania shows with horrible clearness to what jeopardizing of human lives the manner of conducting war employed by our adversaries leads." One might imagine that the friendly German Government had been joining the United States in a protest against British inhumanity for killing a hundred Americans. It then proposed two methods by which Americans could pass through the danger zone, though none of these could have been accepted without surrendering the right for which we contended.

It was perfectly plain from the tenor of these two replies that the German party in power was committed to submarine warfare, and that if they spared Americans at all it would be through no considerations for humanity or international law.

The American rejoinder brought the case up again sharply and strongly:

"The Government of the United States is, however, keenly disappointed to find that the Imperial German Government regards itself as in large degree exempt from the obligation to observe these principles, even when neutral

tion was accepted and so the case stood for some time. The next step in the negotiations was reached when Von Bernstorff in a note on September 1, 1915, informed Secretary Lansing that he had received the following promise from his government: "Liners will not be sunk by our submarines without warning and with safety of the lives of the noncombatants, providing that the latter do not try to escape or offer resistance." Further discussions were conducted in Washington between Bernstorff and Secretary Lansing and finally Germany offered to pay an indemnity for the death of the Americans on the Lusitania, which she "greatly regretted," though she refused to disavow the action of the submarine commander or to admit that his act was illegal.

CHAPTER VII

THE SUSSEX AND THE SUBMARINES

HE promise made by the German Govern

THE

ment on September 1, 1915, to the effect that Germany would not sink liners without saving the lives of passengers was unfortunately a characteristic German promise. It had already been broken before we knew that it had ever been made. For on August 19, the liner Arabic had been sunk without warning with the loss of sixteen lives, two of which were American, and Von Bernstorff had been naïve enough to explain that the promise recorded above had already been made by his government before this unfortunate incident. A stillborn promise of this sort was not calculated to inspire much confidence, and the situation in America generally was well reflected in the statement of President Wilson on September 13, 1915, to a delegation of Virginians who asked him to visit the Manassas battle-field. "We are hoping and praying," said he, "that the