Fergus County Democrat. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1904-1919, 1916-04-20

WASHINGTON, April 19.-The fu]
text of the note to Germany follows
You are instructed to deliver to tn
secretary of foreign affairs a CON
munlcatlon reading as follows:
did not fail to transmit immediate
ly, by telegraph, to my government
your excellency's note of the tenth in
slant in regard to the disastrous ex
ploslon OF March "a, last, whicl
wrecked the French steamship Suisse,
in the English channel. | have nov
the honor to deliver, under instruc
tons from my government, the follow
ing reply to your excellency:
Information now in the possession o
the government of the United State:
fuily establishes the facts in the cast
OF the Sussex and the differences
which my government has drawn from
that information it regards as con
firmed by the circumstances set forth
in your excellency's note of the tentl
instant. On the tweny-fourth OF March
1916, at about $3.50 o'clock in the after
noon, the unarmed steamer Sussex
with 325 or more passengers on board
among whom were number of Amer
lean citizens, was torpeloed while
while crossing from Folkestone to
Dleppe. The Sussex had never been
armed; was vessel known to be hab.
itually used only for the conveyance
OF passengers across the English chan.
mel and was not following the route
taken by troop ships or supply ships.
About 80 of her passengers, non-com-
batants, OF all ages and sexes, includ.
ing citizens Of the United States, were
killed or injured.
A careful, detailed and scrupulously
impartial investigation by naval and
military officers Of the United States
has conclusively established the fact
that the Sussex was torpedoed with
out warning or summons to surrender,
and tina. the torpedo by which she was
struck was Of German manufacture. In
the view of the government of the
United States these facts from ihe
first made the conclusion that the tor,
pedo was fired by German 5ubma-
rine unavoidable. 1t now considers
that conclusion substantiated Dy the
statements of your excellency's note
A full statement of the facts upon
which the government of tho United
States has based it's conclusion is in.
closed
The government OF the United
States, after having given careful con
sideration to the note of tine imperial
government of the tenth c. April re.
grets to state that the impression made
upon 1t by the statements contained
in that note is that he imperial gov.
ernment has failed to appreciate the
gravity Of the situation which has re.
suited. not alone from the attack on
fhe Sussex, but from the whole methe1
and character of submarine warfare
as disclosed by the unrestrained prac
tice OF the commanders of Germa,:
undersea craft during the past l..
months and more in the indiscriminata
destruction of merchant vessels of al,
sorts, nationalities and destinations.
If the sinking of the Sussex had been
an isolated case the government of
The United States might find it possi-
BILE to hone that the officer who was
for that act had wilfully
his orders or had been Grim.
nally negligent in taking none of the |
they prescribed, and that |
he ends OF justice might be satisfied ,
~ imposing upon him an adequate !
coupled with formal dis.
avowal of the act and payment of suit
able indemnity by the imperial gov
But, though the attack upon
he Sussex was manifestly indefensi-
lie and caused loss of life so tragical
Is to make it stand forth as one of the,
most terrible examples of the inhu-
nanity of submarine warfare as the
commanders of German vessels are
it, it unhappily does not
tand alone.
On the contrary. the government of
he United States is forced by recent
vents to conclude that it is only one
Instance, even though one of the most
xtreme and most distressing in
pirit Of indiscriminate destruction of
merchant vessels of all sorts. nation.
lities and destinations which have
ecome more and more unmistakeable
s the activity of German undersea
essels of war has in recent months
een quickened and extended.
The imperial German government
will recall that when, in February,
9l5, it announced it's intention of
leating the waters surrounding Great
sritain and Ireland as embraced with
n the seat OF war and of destroying
II merchant ships owned by it's ene-
HES that might be found within that
one of danger, and warned all vessels,
eutral as well as belligeront, to keep
ut of waters thus prescribed, or to
nter them at their peril. the govern
lent of the United States earnestly
1t took the position that ;;
uch a policy could not be pursued
'ithout constant gross and palpable
iolations of the accepted law of ma