See how it looked in 1916

Ultimatum to Germany From United States

Definite Statement of Nation's Position Regarding Submarine Warfare Sent to Berlin and Given by President to Congress

By Special to The Christian Science Monitor from its Washington Bureau

Washington, D.C. –

The one great point of interest in Washington today in connection with the international situation is the impression of the President’s address and note to Germany will make upon the government access of that nation. Already a good deal of speculation has started as to what the result in the immediate future will be.

From a German source here the intimation comes that if Berlin should by a memorandum extend the cruiser warfare policy now in force in the Mediterranean, such a step would eliminate submarine warfare on merchant ships as is demanded by this government. The administration had taken the attitude of waiting, and this far no official word had come to the capital indicating what the result way be. The President’s address could not have been known in Berlin until late last evening, and it is indicated that news of the receipt of the energetic attitude of the United sates could hardly have been circulated in Germany early enough for any accurate estimate of the attitude of the people today.

The demand of the United Sates upon the imperial German government that it cease immediately its warfare upon merchant vessels, and the definite statement that a continuation will result in a severance of diplomatic relations, was announced yesterday by President Wilson in an address to a joint session of congress. The note was dispatched by Secretary of State Lansing the day before, and it was the President’s belief that it was handed to the German government by the American ambassador at the same time that it was being read by him in the hall of the House of Representatives.

The note reviews briefly the submarine campaign began by Germany in February, 1915, and while mentioning the sinking of the Lusitania and the Arabic, it deals mainly with the attack upon the British steamer Sussex on March 24 and the evidence showing that that vessel was hit by a German torpedo.

The position taken is considered farther advanced than the most radical friends of the administration anticipated. Germany will be expected to abandon submarine warfare against merchant vessels. Nothing short of this will be satisfactory to the United States. Further, there is no expectation that Germany will even consider the abandonment of her submarine campaign against merchant ships.

In view of the use to which Germany has put the submarine, the United States does not consider this type of war vessel a legitimate instrument in the hands of the German government, because it is proved, both in the President’s address and in the note, that Germany has failed utterly to make use it in warfare and keep within the law of nations.

In dealing with the Sussex case, the note says that it is proved conclusively at least to the satisfaction of this government, that the steamer was torpedoed without warning by a German submarine – this in spite of the denial of the German government of any official knowledge of the attack. The note, which is accompanied by and exhibit of evidence in the Sussex case, concludes with a paragraph similar in tone to the one in the President’s address, in which Berlin is informed that unless there is an immediate abandonment of it present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freighter carrying vessels the United States will take extreme measures.

Ambassador Bernstorff, it is stated, sent to Berlin last night a dispatch advising his government that the United Sates means exactly what has been said and that something must be done quickly if diplomatic relations are to be maintained. The Ambassador had already said that in no circumstances will Germany give up the submarine as a weapon of warfare, maintaining that it is her only effective weapon and justified by the blockade order of Great Britain. The United States, however, takes the position that the submarine must immediately be retired as a weapon against merchant ships. The position of the government shows clearly that it recognizes from this time henceforth that the submarine can legally be employed only against ships of war. Until Germany abandons the submarine as a weapon against merchant ships this government will not consider any proposition on the subject of regulations or a new modus vivendi.