“In pursuit of this policy of submarine warfare against its enemy’s trade, so announced and begun despite the solemn protest of the United States Government, the Imperial Government’s submarine commanders have practised a procedure of such reckless destruction as made it more and more clear during recent months that the Imperial Government has found no way to impose upon them such restrictions as it had hoped and promised. The Imperial Government has repeatedly and solemnly assured the United States Government that passenger ships, at least, would not be thus treated, and yet it has repeatedly allowed its submarine commanders to disregard these assurances with impunity. Even in February of this year it announced that it regarded armed merchantmen in enemy possession as part of the armed naval forces of its adversaries, and would treat them as warships, while it bound itself, at least implicitly, to warn unarmed vessels and guarantee the lives of their passengers and crews; but their submarine commanders have freely disregarded even this restriction.
“Neutral ships, even neutral ships en route from neutral port to neutral port, have been destroyed, just as hostile ships, in steadily increasing number. Attacked merchantmen have sometimes been warned and challenged to surrender before being fired on or torpedoed, sometimes the most scanty security has been granted to their passengers and crews of being allowed to enter boats before the ship was sunk; but repeatedly no warning has been given, and not even refuge in boats was granted to passengers on board. Great ships like the Lusitania and the Arabic, and purely passenger ships like the Sussex, have been attacked without any warning, often before they were aware they were in the presence of an armed enemy ship, and the life of non-combatants, passengers, and crews was indiscriminately destroyed in a manner which the Government of the United States could only regard as wanton and lacking every justification. Indeed, no sort of limit was set to the further indiscriminate destruction of merchantmen of every kind and nationality outside the waters which the Imperial Government has been pleased to indicate as within the war zone. The list of Americans who lost their lives on the vessels thus attacked and destroyed has increased month by month, until the terrible number of the victims has risen to hundreds.”
The German reply to America was dated 4th May, 1916, and one or two extracts will indicate its tone. After vigorously denying any “deliberate method of indiscriminate destruction of vessels of all sorts,” the German Government states “that it has as far as possible instituted a far-reaching restraint upon the use of the submarine weapon solely in consideration of neutrals’ interests, in spite of the fact that these restrictions were necessarily of advantage to Germany’s enemies. No such consideration has ever been shown to neutrals by Great Britain and her Allies.”
This last sentence is very typical of the hardy impertinence of Berlin. Later on in the Note, the German Government “notifies the Government of the United States that the German Naval Forces receive the following orders for submarine warfare in accordance with the general principles of visit, search, and destruction of merchant vessels recognised by international law. Such vessels, both within and without the area declared as a naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warning, and without saving human lives, unless the ship attempts to escape or offer resistance.”
On the 2nd April, 1916, the British s.s. Simla, while making 11 knots, was torpedoed without warning in the Mediterranean. The explosion made a hole in her port side 30 feet by 8 feet in size, and the engines stopped of themselves. This took place at 1 p.m. Boats were lowered, and 150 of the crew embarked, the remaining 10, who were Asiatic firemen, having been killed by the explosion. After the ship had been abandoned a submarine appeared and fired seven shells into her, sinking her at 2.30 p.m. The survivors were picked up by a French patrol-boat at 5 p.m. on the same day.
The steamer Zent was in ballast off the Fastnet when at 10.20 p.m. on the 6th April, 1916, she was attacked by a submarine. She was struck by a torpedo in the engine-room and immediately afterwards by another in No. 3 hatch on the starboard side. She had been proceeding at 13½ knots, and sank in two minutes. Three boats were lowered but, owing to the way on the ship, they capsized, and those who could clung to the bottom of an upturned boat. Forty-nine men were drowned; eleven men and two corpses were picked up 2½ hours later, two of the rescued being slightly injured and taken to hospital.
The loss of life was due to the vessel being torpedoed without any warning. If the Germans had allowed even a short period of grace, it is probable that there would have been no casualties. To sink a ship while proceeding at full speed is equivalent to murder, and, as in other similar cases, this was unnecessary murder.
The British steamer Whitgift was torpedoed and sunk on the 20th April, 1916, but there are no details about the occurrence, as the whole of her crew, except one Japanese, were drowned. This survivor was taken prisoner by the Germans. The only particulars about the sinking of the ship are contained in a letter which he wrote:—
“I am now in Lager Holzminden Barrack 4. On the 20 April our schip has been torpedoed by a German U-boot and only I have been saved by the German U-boot and now I am prisoner.”