Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-04-20
Continued From Page ~
No Exceptions Made.

No Exceptions Made.
I'm February of the present year the
imperial German government informed
this government and the other neutral
governments of the world that 1t had
reason to believe that the government
OF Great Britain had armed all mer-
chant vessels of British ownership and
had given them secret orders to at
tack any submarine of the enemy
they might encounter upon the seas
land that the imperial German govern
ment felt Justified in the circum-
stances in treating all merchantmen Of
belligerent ownership as auxiliary ves-
sells Of war, which it would have the
right to destroy without warning, The
law Of nations has long recognized the
right Of merchantmen, to carry arms
for protection and to use them to repel
attack, though to use them in such
circumstances at their own risk; but
the imperial German government
claimed the right to set these under
standings aside under circumstances
which it deemed extraordinary. Even
the terms in which it announced it's
purpose thus still further to relax the
restraints it had previously protested
its willingness and desire to put upon
the operations of it's submarines, car
ried the plain implication that at least
vessels which were not armed would
still be exempt from destruction with
out warning and that personal safety
would be accorded their passengers
and crews; but even that limitation, II
it was ever practicable to observe. it.,
has in fact constituted no check at all
upon the destruction of ships of every
sort. ink
Passenger Ships Sunk. -.
T Again and again the imperial Ger
man government has given this gov
eminent it's solemn assurances that at
least passenger ships would not be
thus dealt with, and yet it has again
and again permitted it's undersea COM
manders to disregard those assurances
with entire impunity. Great liners
like the Lusitania and the Arabic and
mere ferryboats like the Sussex have
been attacked without moments
warning, sometimes before they had
even become aware that they were in
the present of an armed vessel of the
enemy and the lives Of noncombatants,
passengers and crew have been sacri-
feed wholesale, in manner which
the government of the United States
can not but regard as wantOn and
without the slightest color of justifica-
tion. No limit of any kind has in fact
been set to the indiscriminate pursuit
and destruction of merchantmen of all
kinds and nationalties within the wa
tiers, constantly extending in area
where these operations have been car
ried on; and the roll of Americans
who have lost their lives on ships thus
attacked and destroyed has grown
month by month until the ominous
toll has mounted into the hundreds.
Sussex Case Shocking.
zone of the latest and most shock
ing instances Of this method of war
fare was that Of the destruction Of the
French cross channel steamer Sussex.
It must stand forth, as the sinking of
the steamer Lusitania did. as so sing
ularly tragical and unjustifable as to
constitute a truly terrible example of
the inhumanity of submarine warfare
as the commanders of German vessels
have for the past twelve months been
conducting it. IT, this. instance stood
alone, some explanation, some dis
avowal by the German government,
some evidence of criminal mistake or
wilful disobedience on the part of the
commander of the vessel that fired the
torpedo might be sought or enter
tanned; but unhappily it does ,ot stand
alone. Recent events make the con-
clusion inevitable that 1t ID only one
instance, even though it be one Of the
most extreme and distressing in
stances of the spirit and method of
warfare which the imperial German
government has mistakenly adopted
and which from the first exposed that
government to the reproach Of thrust
ing all neutral rights aside in pursuit
OF it's immediate objects.
U. S. Very Patient.
"The government. OF the United
States has been yer! patient. At ev-
cry stage Of this distressing expert
ence of tragedy after tragedy in which
its own citizens We're involved, it has
sought to be restrained from any ex-
IRENE course Of action or of protest
by a thoughtful consideration of the
extraordinary circumstances of this
unprecedented war and actuated in
all it said or did by all the sentiments
|of genuine friendship which the PEG.
pie of the United States always have
entertained and continue to entertain
toward the German nation. 1t has OF