The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1916-04-28

land Ireland. but wherever they could
encounter them, in a way that has
grown more and more ruthless. more
and more indiscriminate as the months
have gone by, lees and less observant
OF restraints Of any kind; and have
delivered their attacks without com
junction against vessels of every ma.
tionality and bound upon every sort of
errand.
Neutral Vessels Destroyed.
Vessels Of neutral ownership, even
vessels of neutral ownership bound
from neutral port to neutral port, have
been destroyed along with vessels of
Delngerent ownership in constantly in
creas1ng numbers. Sometimes the
merchantmen attacked has been
warned and summoned to surrender
before being fired upon or ~torpedoed;
sometimes passengers or crews have
been v~ouchsafed the poor security of
being allowed to take to the ships
boats before she was sent to the bot
| tom.
But again and again no warning
mas been given, no escape even to the
ships boats allowed to those on board.
What this government foresaw must
happen has happened. Tragedy has
followed tragedy on the seas in such
fashion, with such attendant circum-
stances, as to make it grossly evident
that warfare of such a sort, if warfare
it be, cannot be carried on without the
most palpable violation of the dictates
alike of right and humanity. What
ever the disposition and intention of
the imperial German government, it
has manifestly proved impossible for it
to keep such methods of attack upon
the commerce of it's enemies within
the bounds set by either the reason or
the heart of mankind.
I'm February of the present year the
Imperial German government Informed
this government and the other neutral
governments of the world that it had
reason to believe that the government
Of Great Britain had armed all mer-
chant vessels of British ownership and
a given them secret orders to attack
any submarine of the enemy they
might encounter upon the seas and
that the Imperial German government
felt justified in the circumstances in
treating all armed merchantmen of
belligerent ownership as auxiliary YES
sells of war, which it would have the
right to destroy without warning.
"The law of nations has long recog-
nized the right of merchantmen to
carry arms for protection, 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 in circumstances
which it deemed extraordinary. Even
the erns in which it announced it's
purpose thus still further to relax the
restraints it had previously ~professed
it's 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,
il 1t was ever practicable to observe
1t. has in fact constituted no check at
all upon the destruction Of ships of
every sor
again and again the Imperial Ger
man government has given this gov
eminent its solemn assurances that at
least passenger ships would n be
thus dealt with, and yet it has again
and again permitted its undersea COM
~ onIn~ ~ 1s~~~-4-
with entire immunity. Great liners like
the Lusitania and the Arabic and nero
ferry boats like the Sussex have been
attacked without a moments warning.
sometimes before they had even be-
come aware that they were in the pres
ence Of an armed vessel of the enemy
and the lives Of nonconbanant pas
sengers inc crew have been sacrificed
wholesale in a manner which the gov.
eminent Of the United States cannot
but regard as wsnton and without the
slightest color Of justification. No
limit Of any kind has in fact been set
10 b fndiscriminate pursuit and de-
~struction of merchantmen of all kinds
and Eationalities within the waters,
constantly extending in area, where
these operations have been carried 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 tn. hundreds.
l.. s. Government Has Been Patient.
Recent events make the conclusion
inevitable that it is only one instance,
even .hough it be one OF the most ex-
treme and distressing instances, of
the spirit and method OF warfare
which the Imperial German govern
ment has mistakenly adopted, and
which from the first exposed that gov
eminent to the reproach of thrust.ng
all neutral rights aside in pursuit of
its immediate objects.
THE government OF the United
States has been cry patient. At every
stage of this distressing experience OF
tragedy after tragedy, in which its
own citizens were involved, 1t has
sought to be restrained from any ex-
IRENE course Of action OF Of protest by
a thoughtful consideration Of the ex-
traordinary circumstances Of this un-
M NOV A~A ~~xA.A a. ~