Hotchkiss gun, which she did not use, was chased, overtaken, and sunk by a torpedo after the persons on board had taken to the boats. The American note of Feb. 10, 1915, stated that should German vessels of war "destroy on the high seas an American vessel or the lives of American citizens it would be difficult for the Government of the United States to view the act in any other light than an indefensible violation of neutral rights which it would be very hard, indeed, to reconcile with the friendly relations so happily subsisting between the two Governments," and that if such a deplorable situation should arise, "the Government of the United States would be constrained to hold the Imperial Government to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities." In the American note of May 13, 1915, the Government stated: The Imperial Government will not expect the Government of the United States to omit any word or act necessary to the performance of its sacred duty of maintaining the rights of the United States and its citizens and in safeguarding their free exercise and enjoy ment. In the note of July 21, 1915, the United States Government said that Repetition by the commanders of German naval vessels of acts in contravention of those rights must be regarded by the Government of the United States, when they affect American citizens, as deliberately unfriendly. In a communication of April 18, 1916, the American Government said: If it is still the purpose of the Imperial Government to prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels of commerce by the use of submarines without regard to what the Government of the United States must consider the sacred and indisputable rules of international law and the universally recognized dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it can pursue. Unless the Imperial Government should not immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight carrying vessels the Government of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German Empire altogether. The German Government replied to this communication on May 4, 1916, giving definite assurances that new orders had been issued to the German naval forces "in accordance with the general principles of visit and search and the destruction of merchant vessels recognized by international law." And this agreement was substantially complied with for many months, but finally, on Jan. 31, 1917, notice was given that after the following day Germany will meet the illegal measures of her enemies by forcibly preventing in a zone around Great Britain, France, Italy, and in the Eastern Mediterranean all navigation, that of neutrals included, from and to England and from and to France, &c. All ships met within that zone will be sunk. In view of this Government's warning of April 18, 1916, and the Imperial German Government's pledge of May 4 of the same year, the Government of the United States, on Feb. 3, 1917, stated to the Imperial German Government that in view of this declaration, which withdraws suddenly and without prior intimation the solemn assurance given in the Imperial Government's note of May 4, 1916, this Government has no alternative consistent with the dignity and honor of the United States but to take the course which it explicitly announced in its note of April 18, 1916, it would take in the event that the Imperial Government did not declare and effect an abandonment of the methods of submarine warfare then employed and to which the Imperial Government now purposes again to resort. The President has, therefore, directed me to announce to your Excellency that all diplomatic relations between the United States and the German Empire are severed, and that the American Ambassador at Berlin will be immediately withdrawn, and, in accordance with such announcement, to deliver to your Excellency your passports. On Feb. 3 one American ship was sunk, and since that date six American ships flying the American flag have been torpedoed, with a loss of about thirteen American citizens. In addition, fifty or more foreign vessels of both belligerent and neutral nationality with Americans on board have been torpedoed, in most cases without warning, with a consequent loss of several American citizens. Intrigues in the United States Since the beginning of the war German officials in the United States have engaged in many improper activities in violation of the laws of the United States and of their obligations as officials in a neutral country. Count von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador, Captain von Papen, Military Attaché of the embassy, Captain Boy-Ed, Naval Attaché, as well as various Consular officers and other officials, were involved in these activities, which were very widespread. The following instances are chosen at random from the cases which have come to the knowledge of the Government: I. By direct instructions received from the Foreign Office in Berlin the German Embassy in this country furnished funds and issued orders to the Indian Independence Committee of the Indian Nationalist Party in the United States. These instructions were usually conveyed to the committee by the military information bureau in New York, (von Igel,) or by the German Consulates in New York and San Francisco. Dr. Chakrabarty, recently arrested in. New York City, received, all in all, according to his own admission, some $50,000 from von Igel. He claims that the greater portion of this money was used for defraying the expenses of the Indian revolutionary propaganda in this country and, as he says, for educational purposes. While this is in itself true, it is not all that was done by the revolutionists. They have sent representatives to the Far East to stir up trouble in India, and they have attempted to ship arms and ammunition to India. These expeditions have failed. The German Embassy also employed Ernest T. Euphrat to carry instructions and information between Berlin and Washington under an American passport. II. Officers of interned German warships have violated their word of honor and escaped. In one instance the German Consul at Richmond furnished the money to purchase a boat to enable six warrant officers of the steamer Kronprinz Wilhelm to escape after breaking their parole. III. Under the supervision of Captain von Papen and Wolf von Igel, Hans von Wedell and, subsequently, Carl Ruroede maintained a regular office for the procurement of fraudulent passports for German reservists. These operations were directed and financed in part by Captain von Papen and Wolf von Igel. Indictments were returned, Carl Ruroede sentenced to the penitentiary, and a num ber of German officers fined. Von Wedell escaped and has apparently been drowned at sea. Von Wedell's operations were also known to high officials in Germany. When von Wedell became suspicious that forgeries committed by him on a passport application had become known, he conferred with Captain von Papen and obtained money from him wherewith to make his escape. IV. James J. F. Archibald, under cover of an American passport and in the pay of the German Government through Ambassador Bernstorff, carried dispatches for Ambassador Dumba and otherwise engaged in unneutral activities. V. Albert O. Sander, Charles Wunnenberg, and others, German agents in this country, were engaged, among other activities, in sending spies to England, equipped with American passports, for the purpose of securing military information. Several such men have been sent. Sander and Wunnenberg have pleaded guilty to indictments brought against them in New York City, as has George Voux Bacon, one of the men sent abroad by them. VI. American passports have been counterfeited and counterfeits found on German agents. Baron von Cupenberg, a German agent, when arrested abroad, bore a counterfeit of an American passport issued to Gustav C. Roeder; Irving Guy Ries received an American passport, went to Germany, where the police retained his passports for twenty-four hours. Later a German spy named Carl Paul Julius Hensel was arrested in London with a counterfeit of the Ries passport in his possession. VII. Prominent officials of the Hamburg-American Line, who, under the direction of Captain Boy-Ed, endeavored to provide German warships at sea with coal and other supplies in violation of the statutes of the United States, have been tried and convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary. Some twelve or more vessels were involved in this plan. VIII. Under the direction of Captain Boy-Ed and the German Consulate at San Francisco, and in violation of our law, the steamships Sacramento and Mazatlan carried supplies from San Francisco to German war vessels. The Olsen and Mahoney, which was engaged in a similar enterprise, was detained. The money for these ventures was furnished by Captain Boy-Ed. Indictments have been returned in connection with these matters against a large number of persons. IX. Werner Horn, a Lieutenant in the German reserve, was furnished funds by Captain Franz von Papen and sent, with dynamite, under orders to blow up the International Bridge at Vanceboro, Me. He was partially successful. He is now under indictment for the unlawful transportation of dynamite on passenger trains and is in jail awaiting trial following the dismissal of his appeal by the Supreme Court. X. Captain von Papen furnished funds to Albert Kaltschmidt of Detroit, who is involved in a plot to blow up a factory at Walkerville, Canada, and the armory at Windsor, Canada. Bomb Plots Against Ships XI. Robert Fay, Walter Scholtz, and Paul Daeche have been convicted and sentenced to the penitentiary and three others are under indictment for conspiracy to prepare bombs and attach them to allied ships leaving New York Harbor. Fay, who was the principal in this scheme, was a German soldier. He testified that he received finances from a German secret agent in Brussels, and told Von Papen of his plans, who advised him that his device was not practicable, but that he should go ahead with it, and if he could make it work he would consider it. XII. Under the direction of Captain von Papen and Wolf von Igel, Dr. Walter T. Scheele, Captain von Kleist, Captain Wolpert of the Atlas Steamship Company, and Captain Rode of the Hamburg-American Line manufactured incendiary bombs and placed them on board allied vessels. The shells in which the chemicals were placed were made on board the steamship Friedrich der Grosse. Scheele was furnished $1,000 by von Igel wherewith to become a fugitive from justice. XIII. Captain Franz Rintelen, a re serve officer in the German Navy, came to this country secretly for the purpose of preventing the exportation of munitions of war to the Allies and of getting to Germany needed supplies. He organized and financed Labor's National Peace Council in an effort to bring about an embargo on the shipment of munitions of war, tried to bring about strikes, &c. von XIV. Consul General Bopp, at San Francisco, Vice Consul General Schaick, Baron George Wilhelm von Brincken, (an employe of the consulate,) Charles C. Crowley, and Mrs. Margaret W. Cornell (secret agents of the German Consulate at San Francisco) have been convicted of conspiracy to send agents into Canada to blow up railroad tunnels and bridges, and to wreck vessels sailing from Pacific Coast ports with war material for Russia and Japan. XV. Paul Koenig, head of the secretservice work of the Hamburg-American Line, by direction of his superior officers, largely augmented his organization and under the direction of Von Papen, Boy-Ed, and Albert carried on secret work for the German Government. He secured and sent spies to Canada to gather information concerning the Welland Canal, the movements of Canadian troops to England, bribed an employe of a bank for information concerning shipments to the Allies, sent spies to Europe on American passports to secure military information, and was involved with Captain von Papen in plans to place bombs on ships of the Allies leaving New York Harbor, &c. Von Papen, Boy-Ed, and Albert had frequent conferences with Koenig in his office, at theirs, and at outside places. Koenig and certain of his associates are under indictment. Welland Canal Plot XVI. Captain von Papen, Captain Hans Tauscher, Wolf von Igel, and a number of German reservists organized an expedition to go into Canada, destroy the Welland Canal, and endeavor to terrorize Canadians in order to delay the sending of troops from Canada to Europe. Indictments have been returned against these persons. Wolf von Igel furnished Fritzen, one of the conspirators in this case, money on which to flee from New York City. Fritzen is now in jail in New York City. XVII. With money furnished by official German representatives in this country, a cargo of arms and ammunition was purchased and shipped on board the schooner Annie Larsen. Through the activities of German official representatives in this country and other Germans a number of Indians were procured to form an expedition to go on the steamship Maverick, meet the Annie Larsen, take over her cargo, and endeavor to bring about a revolution in India. This plan involved the sending of a German officer to drill Indian recruits and the entire plan was managed and directed by Captain von Papen, Captain Hans Tauscher, and other official German representatives in this country. XVIII. Gustav Stahl, a German reservist, made an affidavit which he admitted was false, regarding the armament of the Lusitania, which affidavit was forwarded to the State Department by Ambassador von Bernstorff. He plead guilty to an indictment charging perjury, and was sentenced to the penitentiary. Koenig, herein mentioned, was active in securing this affidavit. XIX. The German Embassy organized, directed, and financed the Hans Libau Employment Agency, through which extended efforts were made to induce employes of manufacturers engaged in supplying various kinds of material to the Allies to give up their positions in an effort to interfere with the output of such manufacturers. Von Papen indorsed this organization as a military measure, and it was hoped through its propaganda to cripple munition factories. XX. The German Government has assisted financially a number of newspapers in this country in return for proGerman propaganda. XXI. Many facts have been secured indicating that Germans have aided and encouraged financially and otherwise the activities of one or the other faction in Mexico, the purpose being to keep the United States occupied along its borders and to prevent the exportation of munitions of war to the Allies; see, in this connection, the activities of Rintelen, Stallforth, Kopf, the German Consul at Chihuahua; Krum-Hellen, Felix Somerfeld, (Villa's representative at New York,) Carl Heynen, Gustav Steinberg, and many others. Belgian Relief Ships Sunk When the Commission for Relief in Belgium began its work in October, 1914, it received from the German authorities, through the various Governments concerned, definite written assurances that ships engaged in carrying cargoes for the relief of the civil population of Belgium and Northern France should be immune from attack. In order that there may be no room for attacks upon these ships through misunderstanding, each ship is given a safe conduct by the German diplomatic representative in the country from which it sails, and, in addition, bears conspicuously upon sides markings which have been agreed upon with the German authorities; furthermore, similar markings are painted upon the decks of the ships in order that they may be readily recognized by airplanes. its Upon the rupture of relations with Germany the commission was definitely assured by the German Government that its ships would be immune from attack by following certain prescribed courses and conforming to the arrangements previously made. Despite these solemn assurances there have been several unwarranted attacks upon ships under charter to the commission. On March 7 or 8 the Norwegian ship Storstad, carrying 10,000 tons of corn from Buenos Aires to Rotterdam for the commission was sunk in broad daylight by a German submarine despite the conspicuous markings of the commission which the submarine could not help observing. The Storstad was repeatedly shelled without warning and finally torpedoed. On March 19 the steamships Tunisie and Haelen, under charter to the com |