The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-20

3
Ambassador Gerard at Berlin would
be instructed to come home.
U. s. Ultimatum Unmistakable.
Congress assembl today impressed
with the deep significance of the presi-
dents action. The dispassionate words
in which Mr.. Wilson yesterday told
joint session of the house and senate
of his purpose. took on a fuller force
of meaning when publication of the
note to Germany almost identical with
the address in outline and phrase, re-
vealed the unmistakable terms with
which the American government had
declared itself.
Count Bernstorff was hopeful that
his government would find a way to
prevent a break in relations. Last
night he sent a long message to Ber-
| lin, said 10 recommend that some such
| assurances as were given regarding
submarine operations in the Mediter-
ranean should now be thrown around
all submarine operations. The note
declares that the United States has
considered from the first that the de-
struction of commerce by submarines
is utterly incompatible with the prin-
ciples of humanity" It is evident
that the presidents demand is that
! the employment of submarines shall
be restricted to operations against
warships This Is the crucial point in
/ the controversy.
WILSON'S Note to Germany.
The full text of the note follows:
! You are instructed to deliver to the sec
rotary of foreign affairs a communication
reading follows
i did not fail to transmit Immediately,
| by telegraph, to my government your eX-
/ cellency's note of the 10th instant in re-
gard to certain attacks by German sub
marines and particularly in regard to the
disastrous explosion which, on March p
! last, wrecked the French steamship Sussex
/ in the English channel. l have now the
. lOnOr deliver.
4 my government, the following reply to
! your eXcellency:
ACCUSES Kaiser
/ Information now in the possession of the
government of the United States fully es-
| tablishes the facts in the case of the Sussex
and the inference which my government
has drawn from that informa ton it regards
as confirmed by the circumstances set
4 forth in your excellency's note of the 10th
! On the Path of March, 1916. at about so
/ o'clock in the afternoon. the unarmed
| steamer Sussex. with 325 more passen-
/ of American citizens, was torpedoed while
crossing from Folkestone to Dieppe The
sussex mas never been armed; was vessel
/ known to be habttually used only for the
conveyance of passengers across the Eng
! fish channel and not following the
route taken by troop ships supply
ships About eighty of her passengers
Guiding citizens Of the United States, we're
No warming.
"A careful. detailed and scrupuIously i'm
partial investigation by naval and mill
/ tary officers of the United States has
| clusively established the fact that the Sus-
sex was torpedoed without warning
summons to surrender and that the tor
pedo by which she was struck was of Ger
man manufacture.
"In view of the government of the United
/ states these facts from the first made the
conclusion that the torpedo was fired by a
German submarine unavoidable. 1t now
considers that conclusion substantiated by
the statements of your excellency's note. A
full statement of the facts upon which the
government of the United States has based
its conclusion is enclosed.
THE government of the United States,
after having given careful consideration
to the note of the imperial government of
the tenth of April regrets TO state that the
impression made upon 1t by the statements
and proposals contained in that note is
! appreciate the gravity of the situation
which has resulted, not alone from the at
tacks on the Sussex, but from the whole
method and character of submarine war
fare DISCLOSED by the unrestrained prac-
tice of the commanders of German under
sea craft during the past twelve months
of merchant vessels of all sorts, national
tiles and destinations.
Sussex Case the Worst.
"If the sinking of the Sussex had been
an isolated case, the government of the
United States might find it possible to
hope that the officer who was responsible
for that act had wilfully violated his orders
or had been criminally negligent in taking
none of the precautions they prescribed
isfied by imposing upon him an adequate
punishment, coupled with formal dis
avowal of the act and payment of suitable
indemnity by the imperial government But,
though the attack upon the Sussex was
manifestly indefensible and caused a
loss of life so tragic to make it stand
forth of the most terrible examples
of the inhumanity Of submarine warfare
as the commanders of German vessels are
conducting it, it unhappily does not stand
alone.
{ cd rat fs nv voufs
to conclude that it is only one instance,
even though one of the most extreme and
most distressing instances, of the DELHI
crate method and spirit of indiscriminate
destruction of merchant vessels of all sorts,
nationalities and destinations which have
. become more and more unmlstakable' as
the activity Of German undersea vessels of
war has in recent months been quickened
cites Former Protest
''The imperial government will recall that
| when, in February, 1915, it announced Its
ing Great Britain and Ireland as EN-
braced within the seat of war, and of de
enemies that might be found within that
zone of danger, and warned all vessels
: neutral as well as belligerent, to keep out
of the waters thus prescribed, to enter
them at their peril, the government of the
I United States earnestly protested 1t toos
the position that such a policy could not
be pursued without constant. gross and
r papable violations of the accepted law OF
: nations particularly If submarine craft
were to be employed as its instruments, in
as much as the rules prescribed by that
< law, rules founded on the principles OF
! humanity and established for the protee-
ton of the lives Of on-combatants at sea
could not in the nature of the be OBJ
served by such vessels. 1t based its pro
1 test on the ground that persons of neutra
nationality and vessels of neutral owner
4 ship would be exposed to extreme and in
, tolerable risks; and that right to Close
any part of the high seas could lawfully
be asserted by the imperial government il
= the circumstances then existing.
S THE law of nations in these matters, upor
6 which the government of the United States
! based that protest is not of recent cir
: or founded upon merely arbitrary prin
ciples set up by convention. 1t is based
= on the contrary, upon manifest principles
= Of humanity and has long been established
with the approval and by the express as
= sent of all civilized nations.
The imperial government. notwithstand
}