Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1916-04-26


Washington.-Th note to Germany
demanding immediate cessation of IL
legal attacks by submarines on pas
senger and freight steamers carrying
neutrals was given out by the state
department simultaneously with it's
receipt by Ambassador Gerard for de-
livery to the German foreign Office.
The note is regarded as essentially an
ultimatum, although not given that
technical designation by the state de-
partment. The note follows:
ITO Ambassador Gerard:
You are instructed to deliver to
the secretary of foreign affairs COM
munication reading as follows:
II did not fail to transmit immedi-
ately by telegraph to my government
your excellency's note of the 10th in
slant in regard to certain attacks by
German submarines, and particularly
in regard to the disastrous explosion
which on March "a last wrecked the
French steamship Sussex in the Eng
lish channel
i have now the honor to deliver, I'M
der instructions from my government,
the following reply to your excellency:
Information now in the possession
of the government of the United States
fully establishes the facts in the case
of the Sussex, and the differences
which my government has drawn from
that information it regards as con-
frmed by the circumstances set forth
in your excellency's note of the 10th
instant.
"On the oath of March, 1916, at
about $3.50 o'clock in the afternoon,
the unarmed steamer Sussex, with
325 or more passengers on board,
among whom were number of Amer
lean citizens, was torpedoed while
crossing from Folkstone to Dieppe.
THE Sussex had never been armed;
was a vessel known to be habitually
used only for the conveyance of pas
sengers across the English channel.
and was not following the route taken
by troop ships or supply ships.
About eighty of her passengers,
noncombatants of all ages and sexes,
including citizens of the United States,
were killed or injured
German Submarine Blamed.
"A careful, detailed and scrupulous-
ly impartial investigation by naval and
military officers of the United States
has conclusiVely established the fact
that the Sussex was torpedoed without
warning or summons to surrender and
that the torpedo by which she was
struck was of German manufacture. In
view of the government of the United
States, these facts from the first made
the conclusion that the torpedo was
fired by German submarine unavoid-
able.
1T now considers that conclusion
substantiated by the statements of
your excellency's note. A full state
ment of the facts upon which the gov
eminent of the United States has
based its conclusion is inclosed.
"The government of the United
States, after having given careful con-
sideration to the note of the imperial
government of the 10th of April, ro-
grets to state that the impression
made upon it by the statements and
proposals contained in that note is
that the imperial government has
failed to appreciate the ravitv Of The
SITUATION Whlch mas r"S re
from the a1.acE TX. hut
from the whole method and character
OF submarine warfare as disclosed by
the unrestrained practice of the COM
manders OF German undersea craft dur
ing the past twelve months and more
IN the indiscriminate destruction of
merchant vessels of all sorts, nation
aiities and destinations.
IF the sinking of the Sussex had
been an isolated case, the government
of the United States might find it DOS
sible to hope that the officer who was
responsible for that act had wilfullv
violated his orders or had been Grim.
inally negligent in taking none of the
precautions they prescribed and to
hope that the ends of justice might be
satisfied by imposing upon him an ade
quate punishment. coupled with a for.
NAL disavowal of the act and payment
Of a suitable indemnity by the i'm
perial government.
But, though the attack uuon the
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