In February of the present year the Imperial German Government informed
this Government and the other neutral governments of the world that it
had reason to believe that the Government of Great Britain had armed all
merchant vessels of British ownership and had given them secret orders
to attack any submarine of the enemy they might encounter upon the seas,
and that the Imperial German Government felt justified in the
circumstances in treating all armed merchantmen of belligerent ownership
as auxiliary vessels of war, which it would have the right to destroy
without warning. The law of nations has long recognized the right of
merchantmen to carry arms for protection and to use them to repel
attack, though to use them, in such circumstances, at their own risk;
but the Imperial German Government claimed the right to set these
understandings aside in circumstances which it deemed extraordinary.
Even the terms in which it announced its purpose thus still further to
relax the restraints it had previously professed its willingness and
desire to put upon the operations of its submarines carried the plain
implication that at least vessels which were not armed would still be
exempt from destruction without warning and that personal safety would
be accorded their passengers and crews; but even that limitation, if it
was ever practicable to observe it, has in fact constituted no check at
all upon the destruction of ships of every sort.
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