The Pulaskian., 1916-04-21

and Ireland, but wherever they could encounter them. in way that has grown more and more ruthless, more and more fndfseriminate as the months have gone by, less and less observant of restraints of any kind; and have delivered their attacks without com junction against vessels Of every na- 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 belligerent ownership in constantly in- creasing numbers. Sometimes the merchantmen attacked has been warned and summoned to surrender before being fired upon or torpedoed; sometimes passengers or crews have been vouchsafed 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 has 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 cireum- stances, as to make it grossly evident that warfare of such a sort, if warfare 1t 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
 Tn February of the present year the Imperial German government informed this government and the other neutral governn ents 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 had given them secret orders to attack
 
 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 1t would have the right to dsstroy 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 terms in which it announced it's purpose thus still further to relax the restraints it had previously prefessea 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 thelr passengers and crews; but even that limitation, if it was ever practicable to observe it, has in fact constituted no check at all upon the destruction of ships of every sort
 Again and again the Imperial Ger man government has given this gov ernment 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 imunity. Great liners like the Lusitania and -he Arabic and mere ferry boats like the Sussex have been attacked without moment's warning, sometimes before they had even be- come aware that they wore in the pres ence of an armed vessel Of the enemy and the lives of noncoInbanant pas ] sengers and crew have heen sacrificed wholesale in a manner which the gov ernmcnt Of the United States cannot Sut regard as w..nton and without the slightest color of justification. No limit of any kind has in fact been set 70 the indiscriminate pursuit and de- struction of merchantmen of all kinds and Hationalities within the waters. i constantly extending in area. where these operations have been carried on; and the roll of Americans who have i lost their lives on ships thus attacked 1 and destroyed has growI month by month unfif tho onnfnous toll has mounted into ths hundreds
 L. s. Government Has Been Patient
 Recent events make the conclusion I inevitable that # is only one instance, i even hough it se one of the most ex- treme and distressing instances. of the spirit and method of warfare which the Imperial German govern ment has mistake enly adopted, and which from the first exposed that gov ernment to the raproach of thrust .ng all neutral rights aside in pursuit of