A war crime – and a president’s dilemma

From ‘Germany and the United States’, The Spectator, 15 May 1915: The text of President Wilson’s Note to Germany on the sinking of the Lusitania has not been published at the time when we write, but there is no doubt that the unofficial summaries convey its sense accurately enough. It asks that some assurance shall be given that in future unarmed merchantmen carrying noncombatants shall be searched by the German Navy, and that the passengers and crew shall be transferred to a place of safety, before the prize is destroyed…

After his earlier declaration that Germany would be held to ‘strict accountability’ for the loss of American lives, Mr Wilson could not have done less than send such a Note. If he had acted literally on his words he would have done much more. He is in the position of a schoolmaster who has said to a boy: ‘If you break a window I shall certainly punish you. Remember that.’ The boy then breaks a window, and the master says: ‘If you break another window I shall certainly punish you.’ The ordinary onlooker would be surprised that punishment had not instantly followed the deed…

We take it for granted that Germany will not consent to abandon her submarine campaign against ‘unarmed merchant vessels carrying noncombatants’, for that would mean an entire reversal of her criminal policy at sea. She attaches enormous importance to that policy, and hopes by means of it ultimately to neutralise the existence of our fleet…

Opposed to that fact we have the other fact that Mr Wilson undoubtedly means to keep out of the war if he possibly can. Let us say here emphatically that the British people have not the slightest wish that the United States should enter the war.