SEVERANCE OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS The nations that formally severed relations whether afterward declaring war or not are as follows: Austria against Japan, August 26, 1914. Egypt against Germany, August 13, 1914. (Government of Alexander). Greece against Turkey, July 2, 1917. (Government of Alexander). The task of those who sought to keep America out of the war was difficult from the beginning. Great Britain made a formal declaration that it would follow the laws of naval warfare as laid down by the Declaration of London of 1909, subject to certain modifications and additions, known later as "Orders in Council." These consisted of new lists of absolute and conditional contraband. The British Government also declared its right to capture and hold any vessel which carried contraband of war with false papers if she were encountered on the return voyage. As a consequence of Great Britain's stand, a number of American ships were seized, and some friction resulted. The Government of the United States admitted the right of England to visit and search American ships on the high seas, when there was sufficient evidence that contraband goods might be carried in the cargo, but it protested against American ships and cargoes being brought into British ports for search. This dispute upon questions affecting mere property faded into insignificance when Germany's submarine campaign against both lives and shipping was inaugurated by Admiral von Tirpitz. The submarine campaign was an extension of the German policy of Schrecklichkeit, or frightfulness. The great heart of America had been stirred to its depths by the atrocities committed upon the Belgian people when the German hordes swept over that country. Murder, rape, arson, mayhem, deliberate destruction of homes, orchards and crops, confiscation of the wealth of communities, all these had been charged and proved notwithstanding Germany's vigorous disclaiming. Now the war of frightfulness was extended to the seas and German submarines like wolves of the waves preyed upon the commerce of the world, sinking ships and destroying lives and property without warning. German cruisers in sudden dashes across the North Sea bombarded the open and defenceless British towns of Yarmouth, Scarborough and Whitby, killing many civilians including many women and children. German Zeppelins dropped bombs upon open towns in England, Belgium and France, killing hundreds of helpless non-combatants. Finally Germany directed its ruthless sea campaign against America. The American vessel William T. Frye was the first to be sunk deliberately by a German vessel. The Prinz Eitel Friedrich put an armed force aboard the William T. Frye which it overtook in the South Atlantic. The American ship was laden with wheat which was not contraband of war. This was being thrown into the sea when the German commander decided that this process was too slow. Accordingly he removed all members of his own and the Frye's crew to his own ship and sank the American ship with shellfire, on February 28, 1915. On March 28, 1915, the British ship Falaba bound from Liverpool for the west coast of Africa was torpedoed and sunk. An American citizen, Mr. Leon Thrasher, was drowned. On the 28th of April, 1915, a German airplane dropped three bombs upon the deck of the American ship Cushing. The American oil tank steamship Gulflight was torpedoed off the Scilly Islands by a German submarine. The captain of the Gulflight and ten of the crew were killed. American sentiment had been crystallizing against Germany since the mailed fist of Teutonic kultur and the policy of Schrecklichkeit had been revealed in Belgium. The policy of ruthless submarine destruction served to prepare America for the inevitable declaration of war against a militarism that knew no bounds of humanity. German ruthlessness was now to add its final argument for American intervention. On April 22d, the German Embassy sent to the newspapers of New York City the following notice: NOTICE Travelers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany and her allies and Great Britain and her allies; that the zone of war includes the waters adjacent to the British Isles; that, in accordance with formal notice given by the Imperial German Government, vessels flying the flag of Great Britain, or of any of her allies are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk. Imperial German Embassy, Washington, D. C., April 22, 1915. This was printed in the newspapers on the morning of May 1, 1915. On that day, the Lusitania, the crack ship of the Cunard Line sailed from the port of New York carrying 1,251 passengers and a crew of 667. The world was startled and horror-stricken when the cable flashed the news that the Lusitania was sunk May 7th, about eight miles off Old Head of Kinsale on the south coast of Ireland. Two torpedoes struck the great ship without warning. Only ten lifeboats were launched, so rapidly did the great ship sink. The horrible deed dragged to their deaths 1,153 men, women and children of the ship's total of 1,918. Of the 188 Americans who were on board, 114 were lost. Among these were many persons of prominence and usefulness. While the outside world recoiled in horror, Germany celebrated the sinking of the Lusitania as a naval victory. Medals were struck in honor of the crime and school children were given a holiday. President Wilson was criticised sharply during the later years of his administration because diplomatic relations with Germany were not severed immediately following the destruction of the Lusitania. In his defense it was urged that public sentiment in America had not ripened sufficiently for a declaration of war. Neither had there been sufficient preparation by America for the entrance of the nation into hostilities. The sinking of the Lusitania was followed shortly by the resignation of Secretary of State Bryan who differed with the President upon questions of state policy. Secretary of War Lindley M. Garrison, of New Jersey, resigned his post. He was a strong advocate of the policy of preparedness for America. The destruction of the Lusitania was the ferment which transformed the United States from a country of pacifism into a nation resolved upon the extermination of Germany's autocratic militarism. It was a ferment that permeated all classes. American labor and American capital contemplating the Lusitania grew daily to hate more and more the ruthless policy that dictated the frightful deed. G CHAPTER III AMERICA STRIKES ERMANY with her back to the wall, her submarines held within narrow limits, resolved upon a campaign of ruthless submarine warfare. The far-visioned among German statesmen realized that this decision would bring the United States into the war, but Von Tirpitz, head of the German Admiralty and the group associated with him believed that the United States could not be made ready for effective participation in the war before England could be blockaded and subdued. Ruthless submarine warfare commenced on February 1, 1917. Approximately one hundred U-boats were sent from German and Belgian ports to spread terror and destruction throughout the seas. The British countered with a campaign of intensified destructiveness. From British Admiralty sources came the information that no fewer than forty-eight of these one hundred U-boats had been captured or destroyed by February 25th. President Wilson on February 3d informed Congress of the change in Germany's submarine policy and on the same day dismissed Count Von Bernstorff, the German Ambassador whose office was the center of German propaganda and destructiveness in the United States. President Wilson on February 26th addressed a joint session of Congress in person. He asked for authority to supply armed crews and ammunition to American merchant vessels and "To employ any other instrumentalities or methods that may be necessary and adequate to protect our ships and our people in their legitimate pursuits on the seas.' News was received of the destruction, by a submarine, of the Cunard liner Laconia with loss of American lives and property, on the next day. This was followed on March 12th by the sinking with shellfire and bombs of the American ship |