“The German Government attaches no less importance to the sacred principles of humanity than the Government of the United States.”[F]
Can anything be said in extenuation of the German submariner?
Germany declares that she is fighting for her existence, and that unrestricted U-boat warfare is a necessity. Adopting for a moment the enemy’s point of view, we are still entitled to ask two questions, which can be answered by anyone who knows what has taken place.
In the first place, even if the necessity of unrestricted submarine warfare should be admitted, must it be attended by acts of savagery? Secondly, when a nation fights for its existence, is there any standard by which it can be judged, or does it stand outside all law, whether human or divine?
The exploits described in this book provide Germany’s answer to both these questions. That is why she stands condemned before the eyes of the world.
The German submarine commanders have proved by their deeds that they commit excesses from sheer love of cruelty, and not from any national necessity. Over and over again they have shelled defenceless seamen while abandoning ship, disregarded drowning men when rescue would have been easy, sunk ships at sight when a few minutes’ grace would have meant the saving of many lives. The security of Germany demanded none of these deeds. It is possible to carry out submarine warfare without barbarity; but the German submarine service appears deliberately to have chosen the methods of the barbarian.
Another damning point in the evidence here collected is that it stamps the whole German submarine service. The excesses described are not mere exceptions to the general rule of German submarine methods. They could be multiplied almost indefinitely; they cover every ocean in which the German U-boats have appeared; and they are not recent developments of sea-frightfulness, for they date back almost to the beginning of the war.
We have attempted to judge Germany by her own standards as far as possible, but the difficulty is to fix any standard upon which she orders her actions. The conclusion is irresistible. The German submarine commander stands convicted upon evidence unassailable as a thief, a murderer, and a barbarian. If it could be argued that by committing these acts he was performing his work more efficiently, criticism would be to some extent disarmed; but no single ship went to the bottom more completely on account of the outrages of the U-boat commander who was responsible for her sinking. The acts of these men were mere asides, something in the nature of recreation to relieve the monotony of the submariner’s life. The impartial mind cannot escape from this conclusion.
Meanwhile, behind the sinister figure of the U-boat commander rises up the grim outline of the faithless Imperial German Government. This is the Government that declared she would not molest Belgian Relief ships, and then sent the Harpalyce, Ashmore, and Euphrates to the bottom without warning. This is the Government which has often declared that she respected the rights of neutrals, but has behaved to neutral shipping as a pirate denying all rights to others.