gium and France to-day must not be allowed, if there is power on earth to prevent it, to do this a moment longer than can be helped. And they must not be allowed ever to do it again.

"I went in also a hater of war, and I came out a more ardent hater of war. But, also, I came out with the ineradicable conviction, again, that the only way in which Germany under its present rule and in its present state of mind can be kept from doing what it has done is by force of arms. It can not be prevented by appeal, concession, or concession, or treaties. Hence, ardently as I hope that all war may cease, I hope that this war may not cease until Germany realizes that the civilized world simply will not allow such horrors as those for which Germany is responsible in Belgium and France to be any longer possible."

CHAPTER VI

THE LUSITANIA

HE first serious crisis in our relations with

TH

Germany was to arise as a result of her use of submarines against merchantmen. Germany had already been guilty, as we have seen, of gross violations of the rules of war on land. She had torn up her treaty with Belgium, she had in that country instituted for a time at least a reign of terror and, after having invaded it, contrary to the rules of war, refused to feed the Belgian civilians, though according to The Hague Conventions, which Germany had signed, it was the duty of the occupying Power to feed them as well as it fed its own soldiers.

The hard fate which she had forced upon the civilian population seemed to move neither her rulers nor her people. As a consequence the Belgians were in the winter of 1914-15 reduced to a condition bordering on starvation. The sufferings of this innocent country had made a particular appeal to neutral sym

pathies, and America had, therefore, after considerable difficulty organized the Commission for Relief in Belgium. During the early months of this same year were to appear the more or less official investigations which testified to the conduct of the German invading force, which we have already considered.

Germany had already bombarded open towns like Scarborough and Yarmouth, in which numerous civilians had been killed, and had added another chapter to the horrors of war when on April 22, once more against the express stipulations of The Hague Conventions, she used poisonous gas at the Battle of Ypres. However, the offenses which she had committed on land we overlooked, even when brought officially to our attention, as they were when the Belgian Commission laid its grievances before the President. It is necessary to make this clear to all those who believe that we entered this war merely out of considerations of humanity. We paid no heed to such considerations until Germany directly threat ened us and began to carry out violations of the rights of American citizens themselves,

rights recognized since the foundation of our republic, rights sanctioned by international law, and furthermore established in many cases by special treaty between ourselves and Prussia. We had refused to protest against the violation of the rights of European countries-it® now became a question of our own rights. Would Germany prove more scrupulous on the seas, and would she exhibit there any regard for those principles of humanity which had failed to restrain her in her warfare in Europe?

We must first consider the situation which had been developed. England had been unprepared for any war on land, and therefore had no considerable army to throw into the fighting in Europe at the beginning of hostilities. She had, however, been rapidly recruiting and training forces at home, and in the early months of 1915 the time had come when these troops and their supplies were ready to be transported to France. Large quantities of munitions, as we have seen, were soon to come from America, and German trade had been cut off. For all these reasons, therefore, Germany was anxious

to adopt measures which would prevent this increase of strength from making itself felt, and also, if possible, to destroy England's control of the seas and to open German ports again to the German navy and to the merchant fleets of neutrals.

The simplest solution of her problem she saw in an extension of the use of submarines. She knew perfectly that this could not be done as she expected to do it, in conformity with international law, but, as Secretary Zimmermann assured Ambassador Gerard, she did not believe that neutral Powers would go to war because of these violations. Furthermore, she believed that this inhuman method of warfare would bring speedy success, and, as usual, she relied upon that success for her justification. Her decision, because of its shocking character, startled us at the time and struck us as something sudden. We must remember that it was not so, that she had calculated the chances and begun a considerable time before to prepare and increase her submarines and her bases. Von Tirpitz had given out an interview late in 1914, which indicated that the plans had been