From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 24 July 1915:
The United States Government have received from Germany an admission that the American vessel ‘Nebraskan’ was sunk by a German submarine. The German Government, in apologizing and promising reparation, explain that no attack on the American flag was intended, and that the affair was an unfortunate accident. The German apology does not, of course, in any way modify the strength of the American case against German submarine warfare. Rather it increases it. For it is obvious that if Germany continues to act on suspicion, as she certainly must in the particular kind of warfare she conducts at sea, she is sure to kill many neutrals.
The only way to avoid killing neutrals is to act on the American demand that every ship challenged should be visited and the passengers be placed in safety before the vessel is sunk. The German plea is like that of the suspicious Irishman who, sticking a knife into the back of the hand of his opponent at the card-table, exclaimed: “I beg your pardon, Sir, if the ace of clubs isn’t under your band.”
A good many people here and in America are asking how will President Wilson meet the “unfriendly act” from Germany if it takes place, in view of the want of military power of the United States. Those who talk thus forget what a tremendous engine the United States has in a formal declaration of war or in a non-intercourse Act, even if not followed up by belligerent action. Suppose President Wilson were to call Congress together and in effect propose to them that America should outlaw Germany on account of her disregard of the essential principles of international law, as exemplified in her submarine policy. If Germany were thus placed under the ban of the United States and described as “an outlaw” in a preamble to an Act of Congress, the moral effect would be tremendous even if America never fired a shot. The Kaiser, Admiral von Tirpitz, and the Chancellor would no doubt profess to be quite indifferent to America’s action, and would talk about “scraps of paper,” but for all that they would very soon feel the weight of America’s condemnation, physically as well as morally.
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