easures which may have been taken by the other
belligerent nations in the present war which operate to restrain
neutral trade, but has, on the contrary, taken in all such matters a
position which warrants it in holding those governments responsible
in the proper way for any untoward effects upon American shipping
which the accepted principles of international law do not justify;
and that it, therefore, regards itself as free in the present instance
to take with a clear conscience and upon accepted principles the
position indicated in this Note.

"If the commanders of German vessels of war should act upon the
presumption that the flag of the United States was not being used
in good faith and should destroy on the high seas an American 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 as an
indefensible violation of neutral rights which it would be very
hard indeed to reconcile with the friendly relations now so happily
subsisting between the two Governments.

"If such a deplorable situation should arise, the Imperial German
Government can readily appreciate that the Government of the United
States would be constrained to hold the Imperial German Government
to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities,
and to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard
the American lives and property and to secure to American citizens
the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high seas."

The Imperial Government reaffirmed its standpoint in a further
Note, dated February 16th, the gist and conclusion of which was
as under:

"If the American Government, by reason of that weight which it is
able and entitled to cast into the balance which decides the fate
of peoples, should succeed even now in removing those causes which
make the present action of the German Government an imperious duty;
if the American Government, in short, should succeed in inducing the
Powers at war with Germany to abide by the terms of the Declaration of
London, and to permit the free importation into Germany of foodstuffs
and raw material, the Imperial Government would recognize in such
action a service of inestimable value, tending to introduce a spirit
of greater humanity into the conduct of the war, and would willingly
draw its own conclusions from the resulting new situation."

This Note was effective, in that it induc