ment of the United States is at last forced to the
conclusion that there is only one course it can pursue; and that, unless
the Imperial German Government should now, immediately, declare and
effect an abandonment of its present methods of warfare against
passenger and freight-carrying vessels this Government can have no
choice but to sever diplomatic relations altogether."

It will be noted that the President went further than "liners," and said
"passenger and freight-carrying vessels."

In the note sent at this time the President said:

"No limit of any kind has in fact been set to the indiscriminate pursuit
and destruction of merchantmen of all kinds and nationalities within the
waters constantly extending in area where these operations have been
carried on, and the roll of Americans who have lost their lives on ships
thus attacked and destroyed has grown month by month until the ominous
toll has mounted into the hundreds. Again and again the Imperial German
Government has given this Government its solemn assurances that at least
passenger ships would not be thus dealt with, and yet it has again and
again permitted its undersea commanders to disregard those assurances
with entire impunity."

OPPOSED TO SUBMARINE WARFARE.

During all the negotiations the Berlin Foreign Office looked to Count
von Bernstorff to prevent a break. His attitude was represented as
propitiatory from the viewpoint of the United States and opposed to the
submarine warfare of Von Tirpitz. On several occasions he is said to
have warned his Emperor personally that a continuance of the warfare
against which the United States protested would surely lead to a break.
Meanwhile the Ambassador's own position was embarrassed by the
operations of German sympathizers in the United States plotting against
American neutrality. Some of these operations were traced directly to
the military and naval attaches of the embassy, who were withdrawn.

Germany's final note in the Sussex case, received in Washington on May
5, said that "the German naval forces have received the following
order":

"In accordance with the general principles of visit and search and the
destruction of merchant vessels recognized by international law, such
vessels, both within and without the area declared a naval war zone,
shall not be sunk without warning and without saving human lives, unless
the ship attempts to escape or offers resistance."

Contending that the Imperial Gove