the Kaiser telegraphed: "If a break
with America is unavoidable, it cannot be helped; we proceed." The same
day the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Zimmermann, telegraphed to the
German Minister in Mexico, instructing him to form an alliance with
Mexico in the event of war between Germany and the United States, and to
offer as bribe the States of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas; he also
suggested the possibility of winning Japan from her allegiance to the
Entente and persuading her to enter this prospective alliance.

On the 31st of January, von Bernstorff threw off the mask. The German
Ambassador informed our Government of the withdrawal of the _Sussex_
pledge. On and after the 1st of February, German submarines would sink on
sight all ships met within a delimited zone around the British Isles and
in the Mediterranean. They would permit the sailing of a few American
steamships, however, provided they followed a certain defined route to
Falmouth and nowhere else, and provided there were marked "on ship's hull
and superstructure three vertical stripes one meter wide, to be painted
alternately white and red. Each mast should show a large flag checkered
white and red, and the stern the American national flag. Care should be
taken that during dark, national flag and painted marks are easily
recognizable from a distance, and that the boats are well lighted
throughout." Other conditions followed. There might sail one steamship a
week "in each direction, with arrival at Falmouth on Sunday and departure
from Falmouth on Wednesday." Furthermore the United States Government
must guarantee "that no contraband (according to the German contraband
list) is carried by those steamships." Such were the orders issued to the
United States. No native American could escape the humor of the
stipulations, which for a moment prevented the national irritation from
swelling into an outburst of deep-seated wrath.

There seems to have been little hesitation on the part of the President.
On April 19, 1916, he had warned Germany that unrestricted submarine
warfare meant a severance of diplomatic relations. Now, on February 3,
1917, addressing both houses of Congress, he announced that those
relations had been broken. Von Bernstorff was given his papers and the
American Ambassador, James W. Gerard, was recalled from Berlin. No other
course of action could have been contemplated in view of the formality of
the President's warning and the definiteness of