"

This was a virtual refusal by Austria-Hungary to be bound by or
concerned with the submarine agreement between her ally and the United
States. As viewed through German-American eyes (the "New Yorker
Herold"), the Austrian answer represented "a very sharp censure of a
dilettante diplomacy which desires to negotiate and expects plain
replies before the most essential preliminaries are given. The tenor
of the Vienna note is in substance this: 'We are willing to negotiate,
but first you must furnish us with the necessary material--undebatable
material at that.' It is quite comprehensible that Washington is
peeved at this censure."

Austria's demand for a "bill of particulars" was aptly expressed in
this hostile view of the American note. The United States declined to
accede to the request, which was viewed as a resort to the evasive
methods practiced by Germany, but rested its case on the Austrian
admiralty's self-condemning admission that the _Ancona_ was sunk while
people were still on board her. Nor would the American Government
assent to the Austrian proposal that the two governments "exchange
views" as to the legality of the act as described by the Austrian
admiralty. President Wilson and his advisers saw no loophole for
argument as to the justification or otherwise of a submarine sinking
an unarmed merchantman with passengers on board her when the vessel
was at a standstill.

Hence the second American note sent on December 19, 1915, was confined
to a simple issue. The Government brushed aside the questions Austria
raised as immaterial to the main fact based on the incriminating
report of her own admiralty. The Austrian Government was informed that
the admission that the _Ancona_ was torpedoed after her engines had
been stopped and while passengers remained on her was alone sufficient
to fix the blame on the submarine commander. His culpability was
established.

"The rules of international law," the American note continued, "and
the principles of humanity which were thus willfully violated by the
commander of the submarine have been so long and so universally
recognized and are so manifest from the standpoint of right and
justice that the Government of the United States does not feel called
upon to debate them and does not understand that the Imperial and
Royal Government questions or disputes them.

"The Government of the United States therefore finds no other course
open to it but to hold the Imperial and R