THE SECRETARY OF STATE AT WASHINGTON TO THE AMERICAN AMBASSADOR AT
BERLIN
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, July 21, 1915.
The Secretary of State to Ambassador Gerard:
You are instructed to deliver textually the following note to the
Minister for Foreign Affairs:
The note of the Imperial German Government, dated the 8th day of July,
1915, has received the careful consideration of the Government of the
United States, and it regrets to be obliged to say that it has found
it very unsatisfactory, because it fails to meet the real differences
between the two Governments, and indicates no way in which the
accepted principles of law and humanity may be applied in the grave
matter in controversy, but proposes, on the contrary, arrangements for
a partial suspension of those principles which virtually set them
aside.
The Government of the United States notes with satisfaction that the
Imperial German Government recognizes without reservation the validity
of the principles insisted on in the several communications which this
Government has addressed to the Imperial German Government with regard
to its announcement of a war zone and the use of submarines against
merchantmen on the high seas--the principle that the high seas are
free, that the character and cargo of a merchantman must first be
ascertained before she can lawfully be seized or destroyed, and that
the lives of noncombatants may in no case be put in jeopardy unless
the vessel resists or seeks to escape after being summoned to submit
to examination, for a belligerent act of retaliation is per se an act
beyond the law, and the defense of an act as retaliatory is an
admission that it is illegal.
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 vessels are concerned, by what it believes the policy and
practice of the Government of Great Britain to be in the present war
with regard to neutral commerce. The Imperial German Government will
readily understand that the Government of the United States cannot
discuss the policy of the Government of Great Britain with regard to
neutral trade except with that Government itself, and that it must
regard the conduct of other belligerent governments as irrelevant to
any discussion with the Imperial German Government of what this
Government regards as grave and unjustifiable violations of the
rights of American citizens by German naval commanders.
Illegal and inhuman acts, however justifiable they may be thought to
be, against an enemy who is believed to have acted in contravention of
law and humanity, are manifestly indefensible when they deprive
neutrals of their acknowledged rights, particularly when they violate
the right to life itself. If a belligerent cannot retaliate against an
enemy without injuring the lives of neutrals, as well as their
property, humanity, as well as justice and a due regard for the
dignity of neutral powers, should dictate that the practice be
discontinued. If persisted in it would in such circumstances
constitute an unpardonable offense against the sovereignty of the
neutral nation affected.
The Government of the United States is not unmindful of the
extraordinary conditions created by this war or of the radical
alterations of circumstance and method of attack produced by the use
of instrumentalities of naval warfare which the nations of the world
cannot have had in view when the existing rules of international law
were formulated, and it is ready to make every reasonable allowance
for these novel and unexpected aspects of war at sea; but it cannot
consent to abate any essential or fundamental right of its people
because of a mere alteration of circumstance. The rights of neutrals
in time of war are based upon principle, not upon expediency, and the
principles are immutable. It is the duty and obligation of
belligerents to find a way to adapt the new circumstances to them.
The events of the past two months have clearly indicated that it is
possible and practicable to conduct such submarine operations as have
characterized the activity of the Imperial German Navy within the
so-called war zone in substantial accord with the accepted practices
of regulated warfare. The whole world has looked with interest and
increasing satisfaction at the demonstration of that possibility by
German naval commanders. It is manifestly possible, therefore, to lift
the whole practice of submarine attack above the criticism which it
has aroused and remove the chief causes of offense.
In view of the admission of illegality made by the Imperial Government
when it pleaded the right of retaliation in defense of its acts, and
in view of the manifest possibility of conforming to the established
rules of naval warfare, the Government of the United States cannot
believe that the Imperial Government will longer refrain from
disavowing the wanton act of its naval commander in sinking the
Lusitania or from offering reparation for the American lives lost, so
far as reparation can be made for a needless destruction of human life
by an illegal act.
The Government of the United States, while not indifferent to the
friendly spirit in which it is made, cannot accept the suggestion of
the Imperial German Government that certain vessels be designated and
agreed upon which shall be free on the seas now illegally proscribed.
The very agreement would, by implication, subject other vessels to
illegal attack, and would be a curtailment and therefore an
abandonment of the principles for which this Government contends, and
which in times of calmer counsels every nation would concede as of
course.
The Government of the United States and the Imperial German Government
are contending for the same great object, have long stood together in
urging the very principles upon which the Government of the United
States now so solemnly insists. They are both contending for the
freedom of the seas. The Government of the United States will continue
to contend for that freedom, from whatever quarter violated, without
compromise and at any cost. It invites the practical co-operation of
the Imperial German Government at this time, when co-operation may
accomplish most and this great common object be most strikingly and
effectively achieved.
The Imperial German Government expresses the hope that this object may
be in some measure accomplished even before the present war ends. It
can be. The Government of the United States not only feels obliged to
insist upon it, by whomsoever violated or ignored, in the protection
of its own citizens, but is also deeply interested in seeing it made
practicable between the belligerents themselves, and holds itself
ready at any time to act as the common friend who may be privileged to
suggest a way.
In the meantime the very value which this Government sets upon the
long and unbroken friendship between the people and Government of the
United States and the people and Government of the German nation
impels it to press very solemnly upon the Imperial German Government
the necessity for a scrupulous observance of neutral rights in this
critical matter. Friendship itself prompts it to say to the Imperial
Government that repetition by the commanders of German naval vessels
of acts in contravention of those rights must be regarded by the
Government of the United States, when they affect American citizens,
as deliberately unfriendly.