nd of his patience. Probably he began to
doubt whether he could rely upon the reports of Ambassador Gerard that
there was a chance of the democratic forces in Germany coming out ahead
of the military caste. Wilson showed his attitude plainly in the
_Sussex_ note when he said:

"The Government of the United States has been very patient. At every
stage of this distressing experience of tragedy after tragedy it has
sought to be governed by the most thoughtful considerations of the
extraordinary circumstances of an unprecedented war and to be guided by
sentiments of very genuine friendship for the people and the Government
of Germany. It has accepted the successive explanations and assurances
of the Imperial Government as of course given in entire sincerity and
good faith, and has hoped even against hope that it would prove to be
possible for the Imperial Government so to order and control the acts
of its naval commanders as to square its policy with the recognised
principles of humanity as embodied in the law of nations. It has made
every allowance for unprecedented conditions and has been willing to
wait until the facts became unmistakable and were susceptible of only
one interpretation. It now owes it to a just regard, for its own
rights to say to the Imperial Government that that time has come. It
has become painfully evident to it that the position which it took at
the very outset is inevitable, namely that the use of submarines for
the destruction of enemy commerce is of necessity, because of the very
character of the vessels employed and the very methods, of attack which
their employment of course involves, utterly incompatible with the
principles of humanity, the long established and incontrovertible
rights of neutrals and the sacred immunities of non-combatants.

"If it is still the purpose of the Imperial Government to prosecute
relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by
the use of submarines without regard to what the Government of the
United States must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of
international law and the universally recognised dictates of humanity,
the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion
that there is but one course it can pursue. Unless the Imperial
Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of
its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight
carrying vessels, the Government of