Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-05-14
U. 5. DEMANDS FROM
 GERMANY GUARANTEE
(Continued from Page D

their adversaries, in seeking to cut Germany off from all commerce, to
 adopt methods of retaliation which
 go much beyond the ordinary methods
 of warfare at sea, in the proclamation
 of war zone, from which they have
 warned neutral ships to keep away.
 This government has already taken
 occasion to inform the imperial Ger
 man government that it cannot admit
 the adoption of such measures, or
 such warning of danger, to operate
 as in any degree and abbreviation of i the rights of American ship masters T or American citizens bound on lawful
 errands as. passengers on merchant
 ships of belligerent nationalities; and l that it must hold the imperial German government to strict accountability
 for any infringement of those rights,
 intentional or unintentional
 "It does not understand the imper-
 ial German government to question
 these rights; it assumes on the con-
 trary that the imperial German gov- l.ernment accepts, as, of course, the
 rule that the lives of non-combatants,
 whether they be of neutral citizen I ship or citizens of one of the nations
 at war, cannot lawfully or rightfully be put in jeeopardy by the capture or
 destruction of an unarmed merchant man, and recognizes also, as all other nations do, the obligation to take the ] usual precautions of visit and search T to ascertain whether a suspected merchantmen is in fact of belligerent nationality, or is in fact carrying I contraband of war under neutral I flag. :. ,| Submarine Warfare Must Cease.
 "The government of the United
 States, therefore, desires to call the
 attention of the imperial German gov-
 ernment, with the utmost ernestness, {, to the fact that the objection to their present method of attack against the trade of their enemy lies in the prac- tical impossibility of employing sub marines. in the destruction of com merce, without, disregarding those rules of fairness; reason, justice ,a1ld
 humanity, which all. modern opinion
 regards as imperative. It is practice ally impossible for the officers of a submarine to visit a merchantmen at
 sea and examine her papers ana car
 go. It. is practically impossible for
 them to make a prize of :hers and sqI
 they cannot put a prize crew on board of her, they cannot sink her without leaving her crew and all on board of her to the mercy of the sea, in her
 small boats. These facts, it is under stood, the imperial German govern | ment frankly admits. We are in- formed that in the instances of which
 we have spoken time enough for even that poor measure of safety was not t given. and in at least two of the cases 9 cited, not so much as warning was T received. Manifestly, submarines can :. not be used against merchantmen, as the last few weeks have shown, With
 out an inevitable violation of many
 sacred principles of justice and hu- manity.
 U. S. Will Sustain Americans Rights. American citizens act within their ., indisputable right in taking their !. ships and in travelling wherever their
 legitimate business calls them upon 5 the high seas, and exercise those rights in what should be the we'll 5 justified confidence that their lives f will not be endangered by acts done
 in clear violation of universally ac-
 knowledged international obligations, " and certainly in the confidence that
 their own government will sustain f them in the exercise of their rights. "There was recently published in
 the, newspapers of the United States, I regret to inform the imperial Ger
 man government, a formal warning r purporting to come from the imperial Il German embassy at Washington, ad-
 dressed to the people of the United . States and stating in effect that any citizen of the United States who ex- = ercised his right to travel upon the seas would do so at his peril, if his
 journey should take him within the zone of waters within which the inn s perial German navy was using subma- I rines against the commerce Of Great !, Britain and France, notwithstanding
 the respectful but very earnest pro
 test of the government of the United y Sta tes. I do not refer to this for the 2 purpose of calling the attention of the imperial German government at this time to the surprising irregularlty of communication from the imperial t German embassy at Washington ad- " dressed to the people of the United |, States through the newspapers, but
 only for the purpose of pointing out | that no warning that an unlawful and ) inhuman act will be committed can
 possibly be accepted as an excuse or
 palliation for that act, or as an abate- ment of the responsibility for its con- mission.
 l Expects Germany to Change Methods. = Long acquainted as this govern
 ment has been with the character of
 the imperial German government and with the high principles of equity by I which they have in the past been actu- l ated and guided, the government of