The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1916-04-20
Ultimatun Is
Sent Germany
Continued From Page Twol

4
every possible precautiOn, both to
respect the rights of neutrals and
to safeguard the lives of nom
cOmbatants.
What has actually happened in the
year which has since elapsed has
| shown hopes were not justified, those
assurances insusceptible of being full
filled.
In pursuance Of the policy of sub
F., marine warfare against the commerce
of its adversaries, thus announced and
entered upon by the imperial Ger
man government in despite of the sol
emn protest of this government, the
commanders of German undersea YES
sells have attacked merchant ships
with greater and greater activity, not
only upon the high seas surrounding
Great Britain and Ireland, but where
ever they could encounter them in
way that has grown more and more
ruthless, more and more indiscrimi-
nate as the months have gone by, less
and less observant of restraints Of
any kind; and have delivered their at
tacks without conjunction against
vessels of every nationality and
bound upon every sort of errand. Yes
sells of neutral ownership, even YES
sells of neutral ownership bound from
neutral port to neutral port, have
been destroyed along with vessels Of
belligerent ownership in constantly
increasing numbers. Sometimes the
! merchantmen attacked has been warn
| ed and summoned to surrender before
being fired on or torpedoed; some
times passengers or crews have been
vouchsafed the poor safe 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 govern
ment foresaw must happen, has hap
pened. Tragedy has followed tragedy
on the seas in such fashion, with such
attendant circumstances, as to make
it grossly evident that warfare of
such a sort, if warfare it be, cannot
be carried on without the most palp-
able violation of the dictates alike of
right and humanity. Whatever the
disposition and intention of the imper-
ial German government, it has mani
testify proved impossible for it to keep
such methods of attack upon the COM
merce of its enemies within the
bounds set by either the reason or the
heart of mankind.
Again and again the Imperial
German government has given
this government its solemn as
surance that at least passenger
ships would not be thus dealt with
and yet it has again and again
permitted its undersea command
ers to disregard those assurances
with entire impunity.
Great liners like the Lusitania and
the Arabic and mere ferry boats like
the Sussex have been attacked with
out a moments warning, sometimes
before they had even become aware
that they were in the presence of an
armed vessel Of the enemy and that
lives of non-combatants, passengers
and crew have been sacrificed whole
sale, in a manner which the govern
ment of the United States cannot but
regard as wanton and without the
slightest color of jurisdiction. No
limit of any kind has in fact been
set to the indiscriminate pursuit and
destruction of merchantmen of all
kinds and nationalities withip the
waters, constantly extending in area,
where these operations have been car
ried on; and the roll of Americans
who have lost their lives onships thus
: attacked and destroyed has grown
month by month until the orinous toll
has mounted into the hundreds.
One of the latest and mos shocking
instances of this method Of warfare
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
, singularly tragical and unjustifable
as to constitute a truly terrible ex-
ample of the inhumanity of submarine
l warfare as the commanders of Ger
man vessels have for the past twelve
months been conducting il, If this
instance stood alono some explana-
: ton, some disavowal by the German
: government, some evidence of crini-
nal mistake or wilful disobedience or
the part Of the commander of the YES
: sci that fired the torpedo might be
5 sought or entertained; but unhappily
s it does not stand alone. Recent events
make the conclusion inevitable that i
is only one instance, even though i
? be one of the most extreme and dis
tressing instances, of the spirit ant
method of warfare which the I'm
, perial German government has mis-
takenly adopted and which from tn
!, first exposed that government to tn
reproaching to thrusting all neutrs
: rights aside in pursuit of its imme
E diate objects.
The government of the Unite
States has been very patient. A
every stage of this distressing exper