The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1935-09-27
Continued From Page One)

gag would prove effective
enough to warrant the I'M
avoidable risks of complica-
ton which it involved.
How much could their
little fiotilla Of submarines
Numbering at that time
only 16 boats in active serv-
ice) really accomplish?
S. NJ. S. U-21, rising off
the port of Liverpool, hun
dreds of miles behind the
protecting screen Of the
British fleet, had sunk three
British merchant steamers
in swift succession.
The next day, on the opposite
side of England, another subma-
rine sank three more merchant
men-all of them being torpedoed
without warning, in fragrant vio-
lation of international law. Two
more cargo ships had been de-
stroyed, by more legal methods,
off Havre and one off the Dutch
coast a little earlier.
THE chief of the naval staff,
l. Admiral Won Pohl, fastened to
draw up the scheme. The war
lord was to inspect the fleet at
Wilhelmshaven on Feb. 4, and on
the boat journey through the har-
Dor to the flagship the confident
admiral secured the fateful de-
cision upon which so much his
tory was to hang.
Barely "a hours later the news
papers of the United States were
blazing with the headline, Ger
many Proclaims War Zone"
At the precise moment when
American resentment against the
British trade controls might con-
ceivably have produced some tan
gible result (if it was ever to do sol
the Germans had created diver
sion in which all thought of the
trade controversy was soon to be
swallowed up and lost.
IT is true that the first reception
l. (of the news of Germanys
proclamation of a war zone) was
one of comparative calm. This
was partly, no doubt, because it
was still so difficult for any one to
conceive (after six months study
of the war through Allied eyes,
that the Entente arms we're other
than invincible.
There were some who were out
ragged, while most adopted the
view of the Allied spokesman that
the thing was technically too alb
Surd for serious consideration.
AT the State Department a few
days later reporters were told that
the United States would probably
make no protest.
Comparison showed the German
war zone decree to be very like
the earlier British one, and "it
dawned upon the officials here
today that the German govern
ment had executed a rather neat
and clever counter diplomatic
stroke"
In the meanwhile Col. Houses
mind was upon higher things.
The passengers were full of the
new submarine war. Approach
ing st. Georges Channel they
noticed the sudden appearance at
the Lusitania's monkey gaff of
the Stars and Stripes.
Col. House diScreetly omitted to
observe this latter phenomenon
himself, but others did and there
were big stories about the strata
gem in the American newspapers.
4 T the State Department all
l. n they saw in the flag episode
was an opening for a convention
ally adroit move in the routine
chess game of diplomacy. On
Feb. 10 stiff note was dispatched
to Germany:
If the commanders of German
vessels of war should act upon the
presumption that the flag of the
United States was not being used
IN good faith and should destroy
on the high seas an American YES
sci or the lives of American citi-
zenS, it would be difficult for the
government of the United States
to view the act in any other light
than as an indefensible violation
Of neutral rights"
Thus f1atly-and far too hast
ily-waS the war zone concept re-
Jected. To the argument that the
Germans had been authorized to
adopt it by our acquieScence when
1t was invented by the British, we
replied upon the technically cor
rect, if practically irrelevant.
ground that We had not acqui-
eSced.
Were We not, indeed. still pro-
testing British illegalities? Yet
in the German note we had added
-incautiously. even recklessly-
that we would hold Germany to
a strict accountability" 1t was
a phraSe>w which President Wilson
was later to have cause to regret.
ON March l Ambassadors
~ Spring Rice and Jusserand
presented at the State Depart
ment two notes verbales, fatty
prohibiting all further neutral
trade either RI 0r fro,,, %l,o go