the
same differences with the Ministers responsible to the majority
in the Reichstag as the American President has had so frequently
with the Senate. In such cases the American people nearly always
support the President, directly chosen by them, and so bring
corresponding pressure to bear on the Senate.

The brief constitutional diversion from the question of "armed
merchantmen" was to give an opportunity for announcing the surprising
catastrophes which had occurred in the course of the development of
this question. About the end of the year 1915 Mr. Wilson had married
for the second time and was absent for a time from Washington.
Consequently the President seems not to have exerted the same close
control as usual over the political actions of his Ministers. In any
case he had not read, or only hastily glanced through, a Memorandum
on the submarine campaign which Mr. Lansing had handed on the 18th
January, 1916, to the representatives of the Entente, and had not
therefore realized its far-reaching importance. This Memorandum
only came to the knowledge of the Central Powers at a later date,
through the medium of the Press, which had got to know of it from
one of the Entente representatives or through some indiscretion.

The Memorandum went even further than the Note of the 21st July,
1915, and recognized that the use of submarines could not be prohibited
to the combatants after they had proved their value in attacking
enemy commerce. It laid down, however, that the submarine campaign
must, without interfering with its effectiveness be brought into
harmony with the general provisions of international law and with
the principles of humanity. It was, therefore, necessary on the
one side that the submarines should be instructed to conduct their
campaign within the limits laid down for cruiser-warfare against
merchant shipping, _i.e._, they must not sink without first stopping
and examining the ship and giving the passengers and crew a chance
to save themselves. On the other side, the merchant ships were not
to carry arms, since, owing to the nature of the submarines, it
would be impossible for them to conduct their operations on the
lines of cruiser-warfare if the merchantmen were even lightly armed,
as had hitherto been permitted by the principles of international
law for purposes of defense. Under the prevailing circumstances any
arming of a merchant ship would have an offensive character.

The Memorandum concluded as