PUBLISHED WARNING DECLARED NO EXCUSE FOR ATTACK
“There was recently published in the newspapers of the United States, I regret to inform the imperial German government, a formal warning, purporting to come from the imperial German embassy at Washington, addressed to the people of the United States, and stating in effect that any citizen of the United States who exercised his right of free travel upon the seas would do so at his peril if his journey should take him within the zone of waters within which the imperial German navy was using submarines against the commerce of Great Britain and France, notwithstanding the respectful but very earnest protest of this government, the government of the United States. I do not refer to this for the purpose of calling the attention of the imperial German government at this time to the surprising irregularity of a communication from the imperial German embassy at Washington addressed to the people of the United States through the newspapers, but only for the purpose of pointing out that no warning that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can possibly be accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act, or as an abatement of the responsibility for its commission.
“Long acquainted as this government has been with the character of the imperial German government and with the high principles of equity by which they have in the past been actuated and guided, the government of the United States cannot believe that the commanders of the vessels which committed these acts of lawlessness did so except under a misapprehension of the orders issued by the imperial German naval authorities. It takes it for granted that, at least within the practical possibilities of every such case, the commanders even of submarines were expected to do nothing that would involve the lives of non-combatants or the safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of failing of their object of capture or destruction.
“It confidently expects, therefore, that the imperial German government will disavow the acts of which the government of the United States complains; that they will make reparation so far as reparation is possible for injuries which are without measure, and that they will take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence of anything so obviously subversive of the principles of warfare for which the imperial German government have in the past so wisely and so firmly contended.