Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1916-02-29

Berlin, Feb 2S, a p. m, via London,
Feb. 90, 1910 p. NJ THE Associated
Press is informed by Germany's lead
ing statesmen that the new rule of
submarine warfare which was an
nounced in the German memorandum
regarding the future treatment of arm
ed merchantmen, will positively be put
in effect at midnight Of Tuesday, Feb.
20.
At that time the period Of warning
for neutrals, giving them opportunity
to advise their nationals not to travel
on armed merchantmen, will expire.
For several days there has been more
than possibility that Germany at the
last moment might make a proposal
that she would discontinue practices
of reprisal and sink no merchant ships
-freighters or passenger lines-with-
out first hating the vessel for exam
fnation and putting the crew in place
of safety as in the old style of naval
war II the allies would remove arma-
IutllI Hull II w &c
thought England might accept this pro-
posal or that the United States and 9th
er neutrals would be convinced, if Eng
land refused, that she had no intention
of disseminating the use Of armament
for offensive purposes. This might
possibly have given President Wilson
proof that armament on merchantmen
was not used purely for defensive, and
thus enable the president to reconcile
the two conflicting viewpoints regard
ing the improperly Of merchantmen
carrying armament and the impossible
ity of the United States altering the
established law Of nations.
Publication of President Wilson's
letter to Senator Stone, however, ap-
parently convinced Germany's leading
statesmen that no assistance was tc
be expected from Washington in end
ing the present anomalous situation re-
garding rules of submarine warfare
and that it was useless to make pro-
posals, the only result of which would
be to give England more time to re-
plenish her stores while a discussion
was in progress at Washington and
London. At least two of the highest
officials directly concerned appear tc
be now convinced that Washington has
no desire to embarrass Great Britain
in the conduct of the war, or to dc
anything which might permit Germany
to use the submarine in warfare
against commerce.
Expect Wholesale Sinking.
Newspapers and the German public
generally are primed for a spectacular
opening of the new submarine cam.
paign. The reader of the average
newspaper article or contribution tt
the papers by naval expert might
expect to find the columns of his news,
paper on Thursday too small to con,
tain full account of the merchantmen
sunk by Germany's big fleet of subma-
rines on the first day of the campaign
1t may be doubted, however, whether
the campaign will set in with such
vigor, and it would be no surprise Il
some time passes without an incident
of such character as to force the
| United States to act on President Will.
sons declarations.
Statesmen Hope for the Best.
! Such, at least, appears to be the
hope of the leading German statesmen
They have little expectation that Presi
dent Wilson will change his attitude
even after the receipt of the justifica
tory evidence attached to the German
memorandum in the form Of appen'
dices, which apparently were not con
tanned in the American embassy's ca
| blegram giving the text of the memor-
andum itself and is being forwarded by
Continued on Page Twelve.)
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