a coup d'etat, and was plainly the outcome of a
long and silent struggle in the inner councils of the Government. All
the political influence of the chancellor, supported by the romantic
weight of the kaiser's name, was exercised to stifle an outburst of
criticism in the Reichstag. Meantime, under the German system of
censorship, the submarine warfare was reported to the German people in
boastful terms, which made them almost a unit in demanding its
continuance without abatement. They heard little of the hundreds of
noncombatants killed by their submarines, or else these casualties
were explained as the result of the explosion of cargoes of munitions.
They had been told week by week of the steady reduction of British
tonnage, that the pinch of hunger which they had experienced was also
being felt in England, and that the German submarine was the only
shield between Germany and starvation. So the German people were
behind the military and naval element for an unrestricted U-boat
warfare. The situation was such that the gravest doubt was felt
whether the chancellor, even with the kaiser's support, could adjust
the submarine issue in a way satisfactory alike to the United States
and to the clamorous radical militarists upheld by a misled people.

The German Government brooded over the ultimatum of the United
States for fifteen days before it decided upon a declaration that
averted a rupture of diplomatic relations. The German note,
dispatched May 5, 1916, grudgingly admitted "the possibility that
the ship mentioned in the note of April 10, 1916, as having been
torpedoed by a German submarine is actually identical with the
_Sussex_." It characteristically withheld an unreserved admission,
but "should it turn out that the commander was wrong in assuming the
vessel to be a man-of-war, the German Government will not fail to
draw the consequences resulting therefrom." This hesitating and
qualified acknowledgment was accepted as about as near to a
confession of guilt as Germany was then capable of making.

On the vital question of the conduct of submarine warfare, a change in
which the United States was determined upon forcing Germany to make,
the note was more explicit and thus yielded to the American demand:

"The German Government will only state that it has imposed
far-reaching restraint upon the use of the submarine weapon, solely in
consideration of neutrals' interests, in spite of the fact that these
restrictions are