Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-04-20

government in the circumstances then
existing
The law of nations in these mat
tiers, upon which the government OF
the United States based that protest,
is not of recent origin or founded up
on merely arbitrary principles set up
by convention. 1t is based, on the
contrary, upon manifest principles of
humanity and has long been estab
lished with the approval and by the
express assent of all civilized nations.
GERMAN PLEDGES Violated.
The imperial government, notwith-
standing, persisted in carrying out the
policy announced, expressing the hope
that the dangers involved. at any rate
to neutral vessels, would be reduced
to minimum by the instructions
which 1t had issued to the commanders
OF its submarines, and assuring the
government of the United States that
it would take every possible precau-
ton both to respect the rights OF neu-
trails and to safeguard the lives of
noncombatants.
I'm pursuance of this policy of sub
marine warfare against the commerce
of its adversaries, thus announced and
| thus entered upon in despite of the
solemn protest of the government of
| the United States, the commanders of
the imperial governments undersea
vessels have carried on practices of
such ruthless destruction which have
made II more and more evident as the
months have gone by that the imperial
government has found it impra cticable
to put any such restraints upon them
as it had hoped and promised to put
Again and again the imperial gov
eminent has given it's solemn assur-
ances to the government of the United
States that at least passenger ships
would not be thus dealt with, and
yet 1t has repeatedly permitted its I'M
dersea commanders to disregard those
assurances with entire impunity.
las recently as February last it
gave notice that it would regard all
armed merchantmen owned by its
enemies as part of the naval forces Of
its adversaries and deal with them as
| with men of war, thus, at least by i'm
| plication, pledging itself to give warn
ing to vessels which were not armed
and to accord security of life to their
passengers and crews; but even this
limitation their submarine command
| ers have recklessly ignored.
! Vessels of neutral ownership, even
| from neutral port to neutral port, have
been destroyed along with vessels Of
belligerent ownership in constantly in
creasing numbers. Sometimes the mer-
chantmen attacked have been warned
and summoned to surrender before be-
| ing fired on or torpedoed; sometimes
| their passengers and crews have been
vouchsafed the poor security of being
allowed to take to the ships boats be-
| fore the ship 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.
Great liners like the Lusitania and
Arabic and passenger boats like the
| Sussex have been attacked without a
moments warning, often before they
| have even become aware that they
were in the presence of an armed ship
| of the enemy, and the lives of non
combatants, passengers, and crew
have been destroyed wholesale and in
a manner which the government of the
| United States cannot but regard as
wanton and without the slightest color
of justification.
| ''No limit of any kind has in fact
been set to their indisCriminate pur-
suit and destruction of merchantmen
of all kinds and nationalities within
| the waters which the imperial govern
ment has chosen to designate as lying
within the seat of war. The roll OF
! Americans who have lost their lives
upon ships thus attacked and destroy
, ed has grown month by month until
the ominous toll has mounted into the
hundreds.
THE government of the United
States has been very patient. At every
stage of this distressing experience oil
tragedy after tragedy it has sought to
/ be governed by the most thoughtful
consideration the extraordinary cir
cumstances of an unprecedented wal
and to be guided by sentiments of very
genuine friendship for the people and
government of Germany.
1T has accepted the successive ex,
plantations and assurances of the i'm