Meanwhile the Arabic was sunk on August 19. Coming close on the unsuccessful Lusitania negotiations and a continuation of submarine attacks in which Americans had suffered, it seemed that the United States and Germany had at last reached the point of a break. Then, on September 1, came the first rift in the threatening situation. Count von Bernstorff presented this written assurance to Secretary Lansing:
"Liners will not be sunk by our submarines without warning and without safety of non-combatants, provided that the liners do not try to escape or offer resistance."
The United States had agreed all along that ships hailed for visit and search by a war vessel took a risk if they attempted to flee, but it contended not for the safety of "liners" alone, but for the immunity of all peaceful merchant vessels. The word "liners" was the perplexing point in Germany's assurances and a complete agreement on what it actually meant never was finally reached.
More hopefulness was added to the situation when, on October 5, the Arabic case was disposed of by Germany disavowing the sinking and giving renewed assurances that submarine commanders had been again instructed to avoid repetition of the acts which provoked American condemnation. Count von Bernstorff delivered to Secretary Lansing this communication:
BERNSTORFF'S COMMUNICATION.
"The orders issued by his Majesty the Emperor to the commanders of submarines—of which I notified you on a previous occasion—have been made so stringent that the recurrence of incidents similar to the Arabic case is considered out of the question. The Imperial Government regrets and disavows this act and has notified Commander Schneider accordingly."
With that the negotiations reverted to the Lusitania case. Germany already had agreed to pay indemnity for American lives lost, but the negotiations were delayed by a seeming deadlock over the words in which Germany should acknowledge the illegality of the destruction of the liner. Germany, unwilling to use the word "illegal," substituted a declaration that "reprisals must not be directed at others than enemy subjects." A formal communication, including such a declaration and expressing regret for loss of American lives, assuming liability and offering reparation in the form of indemnity, was submitted to Secretary Lansing.
A favorable settlement of the long and threatened controversy seemed to be in sight when all the progress that had been made was reduced to nothing by Germany's declaration of a new submarine policy of sinking without warning all armed merchant ships. That precipitated a new situation so vitally interwoven with the whole structure of the Lusitania case that President Wilson declined to close the Lusitania settlement while the other issue was pending, and there the whole matter rested while German submarine warfare was contained and new cases involving loss of American lives piled up.
Finally the accumulation of evidence reached such proportions with the torpedoing of the Sussex that President Wilson, convinced that assurances given in the Lusitania and Arabic cases were being violated, dispatched another note to Germany, and went before Congress, reviewed the entire situation from the beginning, and made this declaration: