Norwich bulletin., 1916-04-20

land warned all vessels, neutral as well as belligerent, to keep out of the wa ters thus prescribed or to enter them at their peril, the government of the United States earnestly protested. It. took the position that such a policy could not be pursued without constant gross and palpable violations of the accepted law of nations, particularly if submarine craft were to be employ ed as its instruments, inasmuch as the rules prescribed by that law, rules founded on the principles of humani- | ty and established for the protection of lives of non oombatants at sea, could not in the nature of the case be observed by such vessels, It based it's protest on the ground that persons of neutral nationality and vessels of neutral ownership would be exposed to extreme and intolera- 1 hle risks; and that no right to close amp yart of the high seas could law fully be asserted by the imperial gov Iernment in the circumstances then existing. The law of nations in these matters, upon which the government of the United States based that pro- ed upon merely arbitrary principles set up by convention. It is based, on the contrary upon manifest princi- pies of humanity and has long been established with the approval and by the express asset of all cilivized na- tions.
 Persists in Carrying Out Policy.
 The imperial government, notwith- | standing, persisted in carrying out the | policy announced, expressing the hope 1 that the dangers involved, at any rate, to neutral vessels, would be reduced to | a minimum by the instructions which | it had issued to the commanders of it's submarines and assuring the govern
 ment of the United States that it | would take every possible precaution
 both to respect the rights of neutrals and to safeguard the lives of non-com- i batants.
 Practices of Ruthless Destruction.
 In pursuance of this policy of sub marine warfare against the commrece | of it's adversaries, thus announced and | thus entered upon in spite of the sol l emn protest of the government of the l United States, the commanders of the l imperial governments undersea ves-
 sels have carried on practices of such l ruthless destruction which have made ! 1t more and more evident as the months have gone by that the inn ] perfal government has found it inn
 practicable to put any such restraint
 upon them as it had hoped and prom ised to put.
 Broken Promises.
 Again and again the imperial gov
 ernment has given it's solemn assur- l l States that at least passenger ships i would not be thus dealt with, and yet
 it has repeatedly permitted it's under l sea commanders to disregard those l assurances with entire impunity. As
 recently as February last it gave mo-
 tice that it would regard all armed
 merchantmen owned by its enemies as
 part of the armed naval forces of it's
 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
 CTS have recklessly ignored
 Vessels of neutral ownership, even
 vessels of neutral ownership bound 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 mere passenger boats like the Sus- , l sex nave Dt0H aIIdChSu a mo- ment's warning, often before they 2 have even become aware that they were in the presence of an armed shin 1, 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 r wanton and without the slightest col | or of justification. No limit of any : kind has in fact been set to their in- discriminate pursuit and destruction ot : merchantmen of all kinds and nation alfties within the waters which the imperial government has chosen tc . designate as lying within the seat o1 . war.
 3 Hundreds of. Lives of Americans Taker The roll of Americans who have los their lives upon ships thus attacked
 and destroyed has grown month by } month until the ominous toll has
 mounted into the hundreds.
 l United States Has Been Very Patient The government of the United States 3 has been very patient. At every stage ] of this distressing experience of trage. I dy after tragedy it has sought to bt t governed by the most thoughtful con. (Hon&inUad on Dooa T,.,aN