ne
warfare, broke off diplomatic relations, I here give the vital
contents of the American Note of the 18th April verbatim:

"Again and again the Imperial Government has given its solemn assurances
to the Government of the United States that at least passenger ships
would not be dealt thus with, and yet it has repeatedly permitted
its undersea commanders to disregard those assurances with entire
impunity. As recently as February last it gave notice that it would
regard all armed merchantmen owned by its enemies as part of the
armed naval forces of its adversaries, and deal with them as with
men-of-war, thus, at least by implication, pledging itself to give
warning to vessels which were not armed and to accord security
of life to their passengers and crews; but even this limitation
their submarine commanders have recklessly ignored.

"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 consideration
of the extraordinary circumstances of an unprecedented war, and to
be guided by sentiments of very genuine friendship for the people
and 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 recognized 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.

"If it is still the purpose of the Imperial Government to prosecute
an 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 recognized dictates of humanity, the Government
of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there
is but one course to 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 the United States can have no choice but
to seve