y evident to it (the Government of the United States)
that the position which it took at the very outset is inevitable,
namely--the use of submarines for the destruction of an enemy's commerce
is, of necessity, because of the very character of the vessels employed
and the very methods of attack which their employment of course
involves, utterly incompatible with the principles of humanity, the
long-established and incontrovertible rights of neutrals, and the sacred
immunities of non-combatants." (The Secretary of State, Washington, D.
C., to the German Minister for Foreign Affairs, April 18, 1916.)

"But we cannot forget that we are in some sort and by the force of
circumstances the responsible spokesmen of the rights of humanity, and
that we cannot remain silent while those rights seem in process of being
swept away in the maelstrom of this terrible war. We owe it to a due
regard for our own rights as a nation, to our sense of duty as a
representative of the rights of neutrals the world over, and to a just
conception of the rights of mankind to take this stand now with the
utmost solemnity and firmness." (President Wilson's Address to Congress,
April 19, 1916.)

"The present German warfare against commerce is a warfare against
mankind. It is a war against all nations. American ships have been sunk,
American lives taken, in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to
learn of, but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly nations
have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in the same way. There has
been no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation
must decide for itself how it will meet it." (President Wilson's Message
to Congress, April 2, 1917.)

The United States cannot go back on these words. They are fundamental in
our position. I do not know whether the Allies have formally indorsed
them or not. But that makes no difference. It seems to me that for
America, with her traditional, unalterable devotion to the doctrine of
Mare Liberum, as Grotius stated it, there can be no peace conference
with a Government which is in active and flagrant violation of that
principle.

I think that for us at least--we do not venture to speak for the Allies,
though we believe they sympathize with our point of view--there can be
no peace parley with Germany until she renounces and abandons her
atrocious method of submarine warfare on merchant shipping.

Here, then, are the three conditions which ought t