w.

The response of the United States to the ominous German order was swift
and direct. On February 10, 1915, it warned Germany that if her
commanders destroyed American lives and ships in obedience to that
decree, the action would "be very hard indeed to reconcile with the
friendly relations happily subsisting between the two governments." The
American note added that the German imperial government would be held to
"strict accountability" and all necessary steps would be taken to
safeguard American lives and American rights. This was firm and clear
language, but the only response which it evoked from Germany was a
suggestion that, if Great Britain would allow food supplies to pass
through the blockade, the submarine campaign would be dropped.

=Violations of American Rights.=--Meanwhile Germany continued to ravage
shipping on the high seas. On January 28, a German raider sank the
American ship, _William P. Frye_, in the South Atlantic; on March 28, a
British ship, the _Falaba_, was sunk by a submarine and many on board,
including an American citizen, were killed; and on April 28, a German
airplane dropped bombs on the American steamer _Cushing_. On the morning
of May 1, 1915, Americans were astounded to see in the newspapers an
advertisement, signed by the German Imperial Embassy, warning travelers
of the dangers in the war zone and notifying them that any who ventured
on British ships into that area did so at their own risk. On that day,
the _Lusitania_, a British steamer, sailed from New York for Liverpool.
On May 7, without warning, the ship was struck by two torpedoes and in a
few minutes went down by the bow, carrying to death 1153 persons
including 114 American men, women, and children. A cry of horror ran
through the country. The German papers in America and a few American
people argued that American citizens had been duly warned of the danger
and had deliberately taken their lives into their own hands; but the
terrible deed was almost universally condemned by public opinion.

=The _Lusitania_ Notes.=--On May 14, the Department of State at
Washington made public the first of three famous notes on the
_Lusitania_ case. It solemnly informed the German government that "no
warning that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can possibly
be accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act or as an abatement
of the responsibility for its commission." It called upon the German
government to disavow the act, m