American Protest Over the Sinking of the Lusitania
by William Jennings Bryan
Please call on the minister of foreign affairs and, after reading to him this
communication, leave him with a copy.
In view of recent acts of the German authorities in violation of American rights on the
high seas which culminated in the torpedoing and sinking of the British steamship
Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which over 100 American citizens lost their lives, it is
clearly wise and desirable that the government of the United States and the Imperial
German government should come to a clear and full understanding as to the grave situation
which has resulted.
The sinking of the British passenger steamer Falaba by a German submarine on
March 28, through which Leon C. Thrasher, an American citizen, was drowned; the attack on
April 28 on the American vessel Cushing by a German aeroplane; the torpedoing on
May 1 of the American vessel Gulflight by a German submarine, as a result of which
two or more American citizens met their death; and, finally, the torpedoing and sinking of
the steamship Lusitania constitute a series of events which the government of the
United States has observed with growing concern, distress, and amazement.
Recalling the humane and enlightened attitude hitherto assumed by the Imperial German
government in matters of international right, and particularly with regard to the freedom
of the seas; having learned to recognize the German views and the German influence in the
field of international obligation as always engaged upon the side of justice and humanity;
and having understood the instructions of the Imperial German government to its naval
commanders to be upon the same plane of humane action prescribed by the naval codes of
other nations, the government of the United States was loath to believe -- it cannot now
bring itself to believe -- that these acts, so absolutely contrary to the rules, the
practices, and the spirit of modern warfare, could have the countenance or sanction of
that great government. It feels it to be its duty, therefore, to address the Imperial
German government concerning them with the utmost frankness and in the earnest hope that
it is not mistaken in expecting action on the part of the Imperial German government which
will correct the unfortunate impressions which have been created and vindicate once more
the position of that government with regard to the sacred freedom of the seas.
The government of the United States has been apprised that the Imperial German
government considered themselves to be obliged by the extraordinary circumstances of the
present war and the measures adopted by their adversaries in seeking to cut Germany off
from all commerce, to adopt methods of retaliation which go much beyond the ordinary
methods of warfare at sea, in the proclamation of a war zone from which they have warned
neutral ships to keep away. This government has already taken occasion to inform the
Imperial German government that it cannot admit the adoption of such measures or such a
warning of danger to operate as in any degree an abbreviation of the rights of American
shipmasters or of American citizens bound on lawful errands as passengers on merchant
ships of belligerent nationality; and that it must hold the Imperial German government to
a strict accountability for any infringement of those rights, intentional or incidental.
It does not understand the Imperial German government to question those rights. It
assumes, on the contrary, that the Imperial government accept, as of course, the rule that
the lives of noncombatants, whether they be of neutral citizenship or citizens of one of
the nations at war, cannot lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the capture or
destruction of an unarmed merchantman, and recognize also, as all other nations do, the
obligation to take the usual precaution of visit and search to ascertain whether a
suspected merchantman is in fact of belligerent nationality or is in fact carrying
contraband of war under a neutral flag.
The government of the United States, therefore, desires to call the attention of the
Imperial German government, with the utmost earnestness, to the fact that the objection to
their present method of attack against the trade of their enemies lies in the practical
impossibility of employing submarines in the destruction of commerce without disregarding
those rules of fairness, reason, justice, and humanity which all. modern opinion regards
as imperative. It is practically impossible for the officers of a submarine to visit a
merchantman at sea and examine her papers and cargo. It is practically impossible for them
to make a prize of her; and, if they cannot put a prize crew on board of her, they cannot
sink her without leaving her crew and all on board of her to the mercy of the sea in her
small boats.
These facts it is understood the Imperial German government frankly admit. We are
informed that in the instances of which we have spoken time enough for even that poor
measure of safety was not given, and, in at least two of the cases cited, not so much as a
warning was received. Manifestly, submarines cannot be used against merchantmen, as the
last few weeks have shown, without an inevitable violation of many sacred principles of
justice and humanity.
American citizens act within their indisputable rights in taking their ships and in
traveling wherever their legitimate business calls them upon the high seas, and exercise
those rights in what should be the welljustified confidence that their lives will not be
endangered by acts done in clear violation of universally acknowledged international
obligations, and certainly in the confidence that their own government will sustain them
in the exercise of their rights.
There was recently published in the newspapers of the United States, I regret to inform
the Imperial German government, a formal warning, purporting to come from the Imperial
German Embassy at Washington, addressed to the people of the United States, and stating,
in effect, that any citizen of the United States who exercised his right of free travel
upon the seas would do so at his peril if his journey should take him within the zone of
waters within which the Imperial German Navy was using submarines against the commerce of
Great Britain and France, notwithstanding the respectful but very earnest protests of his
government, the government of the United States. I do not refer to this for the purpose of
calling the attention of the Imperial German government at this time to the surprising
irregularity of a communication from the Imperial German Embassy at Washington addressed
to the people of the United States through the newspapers, but only for the purpose of
pointing out that no warning that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can
possibly be accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act or as an abatement of the
responsibility for its commission.
Long acquainted as this government has been with the character of the Imperial German
government and with the high principles of equity by which they have in the past been
actuated and guided, the government of the United States cannot believe that the
commanders of the vessels which committed these acts of lawlessness did so except under a
misapprehension of the orders issued by the Imperial German naval authorities. It takes it
for granted that, at least within the practical possibilities of every such case, the
commanders even of submarines were expected to do nothing that would involve the lives of
noncombatants or the safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of failing of their object
of capture or destruction. It confidently expects, therefore, that the Imperial German
government will disavow the acts of which the government of the United States complains,
that they will make reparation so far as reparation is possible for injuries which are
without measure, and that they will take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence of
anything so obviously subversive of the principles of warfare for which the Imperial
German government have in the past so wisely and so firmly contended.
The government and the people of the United States look to the Imperial German
government for just, prompt, and enlightened action in this vital matter with the greater
confidence because the United States and Germany are bound together, not only by special
ties of friendship but also by the explicit stipulations of the treaty of 1828 between the
United States and the Kingdom of Prussia.
Expressions of regret and offers of reparation in the case of the destruction of
neutral ships sunk by mistake, while they may satisfy international obligations, if no
loss of life results, cannot justify or excuse a practice, the natural and necessary
effect of which is to subject neutral nations and neutral persons to new and immeasurable
risks.
The Imperial German government will not expect the government of the United States to
omit any word or any act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining
the rights of the United States and its citizens and of safeguarding their free exercise
and enjoyment.