and
evidently wanted hostages at hand lest any trouble befell them at the
hands of the American military authorities. Secretary Lansing demanded
their release on February 3, 1917, when relations were broken. Germany
assented, then withdrew her assent. A second request for their freedom
and for an explanation of their continued detention was made on
February 13, 1917. At this date the men had been held as prisoners of
war for forty-four days contrary to international law. After being
captured from Allied vessels sunk by the German raider, they were
taken before a prize court at Swinemunde, when their status was
determined. Neutral merchant seamen, according to Germany, must be
held as prisoners of war because they had served and taken pay on
armed enemy vessels. Germany disclosed for the first time that she was
treating armed merchantmen as ships of war and regarded neutral seamen
found on such vessels as combatants. The German raider had captured
altogether 103 subjects of neutral states. They were not imprisoned
because they had committed hostile acts, which would have justified
their detention. They were penalized for being on enemy vessels. The
American Government insisted that Germany had no right to hold any
Americans as war prisoners unless they committed hostile acts. Germany
had no answer to make to that contention. But she did not free them.
"They will be released just as soon as we learn of the fate of the
German crews in American ports," said Herr Zimmermann, Foreign
Secretary.

[Illustration: Woodrow Wilson was inaugurated President of the United
States, March 4, 1913; was reelected and began his second term March
4, 1917. He signed the Declaration of War, April 6, 1917.]

Germany had already been assured that the crews were in no danger. The
conviction grew that she meant to detain the _Yarrowdale_ seamen as
hostages pending a determination of the crisis as to peace or war. The
Administration had been inclined to subordinate all collateral issues
between the two countries to the major and vital one created by the
submarine peril; but the plight of these seamen caused their case to
become one of the chief factors in the crisis. Germany seemed to
conclude that their continued detention, in view of the indignation
roused in Washington by such a wanton violation of international law,
to say nothing of the open insult hurled at the dignity and good faith
of the United States, would only precipitate war. On Feb