Again and again the Imperial German Government has given this Government
its solemn assurances that at least passenger ships would not be thus
dealt with, and yet it has again and again permitted its undersea
commanders to disregard those assurances with entire impunity. Great
liners like the _Lusitania_ and the _Arabic_ and mere ferryboats like
the _Sussex_ have been attacked without a moment's warning, sometimes
before they had even become aware that they were in the presence of an
armed vessel of the enemy, and the lives of non-combatants, passengers
and crew, have been sacrificed wholesale, in a manner which the
Government of the United States cannot but regard as wanton and without
the slightest color of justification. No limit of any kind has in fact
been set to the indiscriminate pursuit and destruction of merchantmen of
all kinds and nationalities within the waters, constantly extending in
area, where these operations have been carried on; and the roll of
Americans who have lost their lives on ships thus attacked and destroyed
has grown month by month until the ominous toll has mounted into the
hundreds.
Pages:
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255