The German
Government accepted this proposal en principe, but said it must be
deferred until after the war.

I wonder why some of the Americans who blame Holland for not being in
arms against Germany never think of that stern and awful deterrent which
stands under her eyes and presses upon her very bosom. She is still
independent, still neutral, still unravaged. Five-sixths of her people,
I believe, have no sympathy with the German Government in its choice and
conduct of this war. At least this was the case while I was at The
Hague. But the one thing that Holland is, above all else, is pro-Dutch.
She wants to keep her liberty, her sovereignty, her land untouched. To
defend these treasures she will fight, and for no other reason. I have
heard Queen Wilhelmina say this a score of times. She means it, and her
people are with her.

Seven Dutch ships were sunk in a bunch in the English Channel by the
Potsdam pirates on February 22, 1917. Holland was furious. She stated
her grievance, protested, remonstrated--and there she stopped. If she
had tried to do anything more she stood to lose a third of her territory
in a few days and the whole in a few weeks--lose it, mark you, to the
gang that ruined Belgium.

But the position, and therefore the case, of America in regard to the
German submarine warfare was quite different. She was one of the eight
"Big Powers" of the world. She was the mightiest of the neutrals.

Her rights at sea were no greater than theirs. But her duties were
greater, just because she was larger, more powerful, better able to
champion those rights not only for herself but also for others.

She would not have to pay such an instant, awful, crushing penalty for
armed resistance to the brutalities of the Potsdam gang as would
certainly be inflicted upon the little northern neutrals if they
attempted to defend themselves against injustice and aggression.

Their part was to make protest, and record it, and wait for justice
until the war was ended. America's part was to make protest, and
then--her protest being mocked, scorned, disregarded--to stand up in
arms with France and Great Britain and help to end the war by a victory
of righteous peace.

But did we not also have objections to some of the measures and actions
of the British blockade--as, for instance, the seizure and search of the
mails? Certainly we did, and Secretary Lansing stated them clearly and
maintained them firmly. But here is the difference