The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-20
TEXT OF US. ULTIMATUM

could not in the nature of the case be observed by such vessel. It based its protest on the ground that persons of neutral nationality and vessels of neutral ownership would be exposed to extreme and intolerable risks, and that no right to close any part of the high seas could lawfully be asserted by the Imperial government in the cir cumstances then existing. The law of nations in these matters, upon which the government of the United States based that protest, is not of recent origin founded upon merely arbi- frary principles set up by convention. It is based, on the contrary, upon manifest principles of humanity. and has long been established with the ap- proval and by the express assent of all civilized nations
 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 ,iby the instructions which it had issued to the command CTS of it's submarines, and assuring the government of the United States that it would take every possible pre- caution both to respect the rights of neutraIs and to safeguard the lives of non-connbatants.
 In 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 it more and more evident as the months have gone by that the Inn perial government has found it inn practicable to put any such restraints upon them as it had hoped and prom ised to put. Again and again the i'm perial government has given it's sol eIan assurances to the government of the United States that at least passen- ger ships would not be thus dealt with, and yet it has repeatedly permitted it's undersea commanders to disregard those assurances with entire impunity As recently as February last it gave notice that it would regard all armed merchantmen owned by it's enemies as part of the armed naval forces of its adversaries and deal with them as with men-of-war, thus, at least by implication, p1edging itself to give warning to vessels which were not armed and to accord security of life to their passengers and crews; but even this limitation their submarine commanders have recklessly ignored
 Vessels of neutral ownership, even vessels of neutral ownership bound from neutral port to neutral port, have been destroyed, along with ves- se1s of bel1igerent ownership, in con- stantly increasing numbers. Some times the merchantmen attacked have been warned and summoned to sur render before being fired on or torpe- dood: sometimes their passengers and crews have been vouchsafed the poor security of being allowed to take the ships boats before 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 mere pas senger boats like the Sussex, have been attacked without Ia moments warning, often before they have even become aware that they were in the presence of an armed ship of the en- eny. and the lives of n-eombatants, passengers and crew, have been de- stroyed wholesale and in a manner which the government of the United States cannot but regard as Wanton and without the Slightest color of jus tffication. No limit of any kind has, tin fact, been set to their indiScriIni- nate pursuit and destruction of mer- #chantmen of all kinds and nationali- ties within the waters which the Inn sperial government has chosen to des-y ignate as lying within the seat of war. 1ne TOli or -AI10IICd11S W1lO GdN0 1OSL their lives upon ships thus attacked and destroyed 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 ev- cry stage of this distressing expert ence of tragedy after tragedy it has sought to be governed by the most thoughtful consideration of the extra ordinary circumstances of an unpre- 4cedented war and to be guided by sentiments of very genuine friendship for the people and government of Germany. It has accepted the success sfve explanations and assurances of the Imperial government as, of course, given in entire sincerity and good faith and has hoped, even against hope, that it would prove to be pos sible for the Imperial government so to order and control the acts of it's naval commanders as to square it's. policy with the recognized principles of humanity as embodied in the law of nations. It has made every allow ance for unprecedented conditions and has been willing to wait until the facts became unnistakable and were susceptible of only one interpretation.
 It now owes it to a just regard for it's own rights to say to the Imperial government that that time has come.
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