rial Government that it can not for a moment entertain, much less discuss, a suggestion that respect by German naval authorities for the rights of citizens of the United States upon the high seas should in any way or in the slightest degree be made contingent upon the conduct of any other Government affecting the rights of neutrals and noncombatants. Responsibility in such matters is single, not joint; absolute, not relative.' "LANSING."*

If Germany was unwilling to accept this interpretation it would be necessary for her to reopen the question. She did not do so and this, therefore, meant that she accepted the American position.

In spite of past experiences the United States accepted this promise in good faith. The spirit of fairness which was always manifested toward Germany was further illustrated in the ruling on the case of the Deutschland, the large commercial submarine which brought two cargoes of goods from Germany to American ports in this same year.

The Allied governments sent notes to the neutral powers stating that, in view of the fact that it was impossible to distinguish the na

* American Journal of International Law, Special Supplement, October, 1916, pp. 199-200.

tionality of undersea boats or to determine whether they were armed or unarmed, belligerent submarine vessels, whatever the purpose to which they are put, be excluded from neutral waters, roadsteads, and ports. This would have excluded the Deutschland from our harbors. Instead of complying, Secretary Lansing ruled in favor of treating the submarine like any other vessel, since "the Government of the United States is at present not aware of any circumstances concerning the use of war or merchant submarines which have rendered the existing rules of international law inapplicable to them." Indeed, we made no protest, though many Americans felt we should have done so when, on October 7, the large U-53 came into the harbor at Newport, and a day later sank three British and two neutral steamers between sixty and one hundred miles from the shore. The submarine set the passengers, of whom many were Americans returning from Newfoundland, adrift in small boats, in which a number might have been lost but for the rescue work of the Newport destroyer flotilla. Here the situation was to rest without any further serious crisis until early in 1917.

IN

CHAPTER VIII

GERMAN INTRIGUE

N addition to Germany's inhumane conduct

in Belgium and on the seas, there was yet another factor which contributed to discredit her in American eyes and to force America first to regard her with suspicion and later to distrust her in word and act. This third factor is in its nature more or less imponderable, and it is difficult to calculate its importance in our government's decisions. We may say that in general it was the result of that large category of underhand activities which were entered upon by German officials either for the purpose of deliberately deceiving or of unduly influencing us in favor of the German cause or government. In pursuing this policy of intrigue and espionage Germany did not hesitate to resort to means which were dishonorable and illegal, and in many cases involved such serious affronts to our sovereignty that in the past we had dis

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missed the representatives of foreign Powers for having countenanced or engaged in them.

In 1805, for instance, the Spanish minister at Washington, the Marquis of Casa Yrujo tampered with the American press, and attempted to bribe a Philadelphia editor to present the Spanish side of a controversy with the United States. Passports were issued to him and he was dismissed by the infant republic. Nor did we grow less jealous of our sovereign rights with age. During a political campaign the British ambassador, Lord Sackville-West, in reply to a letter, advised Americans of British birth to vote for Grover Cleveland. When, after the election, the incident came to light, President Cleveland characterized it in his annual message as, "unpardonable conduct," and explained that, "the offense thus committed was more grave, involving disastrous possibilities to the good relations of the United States and Great Britain, constituting a gross breach of diplomatic privilege and an invasion of the purely domestic affairs and essential sovereignty of the government to which the envoy was accredited."

President Cleveland, therefore, directed that passports be issued to Lord Sackville-West, and Secretary of State Bayard held that circumstances involving interference with American suffrage left no other course open to the United States.

In what follows it will be plain that the offenses committed by Lord Sackville-West and the Marquis of Casa Yrujo were the merest peccadillos compared with the systematic attempts of Germany to influence American suffrage and to disregard the sovereign rights of our government.

The field covered by this underhand activity was so large and the means employed so varied that to treat it in all its phases would demand separate volumes. It was furthermore in many cases so cleverly concealed that much of it has not yet come to light, and more than a year after our entrance into the war the trials and confessions of prisoners and suspected persons disclose almost daily further ramifications of this organized secret plotting.* Thus, for instance, on July 11, 1918, at the investigation in New York when Senator King demanded

*Cf. the files of the New York Times for July, 1918.