The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-04-25

/ lions which it had issued TO it's subma-
| rine commanders, and assured the gov
| eminent Of the United States that it
would take every possible precaution.
both to respect the rights Of neutrals
and to safeguard the lives of noncom-
| batants.
What has actually happened in the
/ year which has since elapsed has
| shown that those hopes were not jusu-
fed, those assurances insusceptible of
| being fulfilled In pursuance of the
policy Of submarine warfare against
| the commerce of it's adversaries, thus
announced and entered upon by the
! imperial German government in
| despite of the solemn protest of this
! government, the commanders of Ger
man undersea vessels have attacked
| merchant ships with greater and great
er activity, not only upon the high
seas surrounding Great Britain and
| Ireland, but wherever they encounter
| them, in a way that has grown more
| and more ruthless, more and more
| indfscriminate as the months have
gone by, less and less observant of re-
| straints Of any kind; and have deliy-
| cred their attacks without compunc-
ton against vessels Of every nationality
| and bound upon every sort of er-
| rand. 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 increasing numbers. Some
times the merchantmen attacked has
been warned and summoned to sur
render before being fired on or tor
pedoed; 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 bottom. 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 at
tendant circumstances, as to make it
grossly evident that warfare of such
sort, If warfare it be, cannot be car
ried on without the most palpable
violation of the dictates alike of right
and of humanity Whatever the dispo-
sition and intention of the imperial
German government, it has manifestly
proved impossible for it to keep such
methods of attack upon the commerce
of its enemies within bounds set by
either the reason or the heart of man
kind
AS to Armed Merchantmen.
In 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-
had given them secret orders to attack
any submarine OF the enemy they
might encounter upon the seas, end
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
The law of nations has long rec
ognized 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 risks; but the imperial German
government claimed the right to set
these understandings aside in circum-
CT 1Ubin h
nary. Even the terms in which it an
nounced it's purpose thus still furth-
er to relax the restraints it had pre-
viously protested it's willingness and
desire to put upon the operations of it's
submarines carried the plain impli-
cation that at least vessels which
were not armed would still be exempt
from destruction without warning and
that personal safety would be accord
ed their 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
least passenger ships would not be
thus dealt with, and yet it has again
and again permitted it's undersea COM
manders to disregard these assur-
ances with entire impunity. Great
liners like the Lusitania and the Ar
able and mere ferry boats like the
Sussex have been attacked without
moments warning, sometimes be-
fore they had even become aware that
they were in the presence of an armed
vessel CT the enemy, and the lives of
noncombatants, passengers and crew,
have been sacrificed wholesale, in a
manner which the government of the
United States cannot regard as
wanton and without the slightest col
or CT justification. No limit of any
kind has in fact been set to the indis-
criminate pursuit and destruction of
merchantmen of all kinds and nation
alities within the waters. constantly
extending in area, where these oper-
ations have been carried on, and the
roll of Americans who have lost their
lives on ships thus attacked and de-
stroyed has grown month by month
until the ominous toll has mounted in
to the hundreds.
Sussex Late Example.