ness took
them mostly to England and France, and there were not enough of
their own or neutral ships at their disposal.

The one hope for the continued avoidance of a conflict was that
the Imperial Government should not withdraw the concessions they
had made on the 5th October, 1915, with regard to "liners," and
that enemy passenger ships should not be unarmed out of regard
for their neutral passengers.

There were, as a rule, no Americans on cargo ships, for there were at
that time few sailors in the United States. From the above-mentioned
letter of Mr. Wilson to Mr. Stone, however, it appeared that the
American Government regarded our concessions as applying to all
merchant vessels, while, as I have already stated, the German naval
authorities had only intended to include passenger steamers.

This misunderstanding might now give rise to a fresh conflict,
even if mistakes on the part of submarine captains were by special
good fortune avoided.

CHAPTER IX

THE "SUSSEX" INCIDENT

On the 24th March the unarmed passenger-ship _Sussex_ was torpedoed
without warning, and several Americans lost their lives. The first
information about this incident was so vague that the matter was
at first treated in a dilatory fashion in Washington. At the time
I sent the following report to Berlin:

REPORT IN CIPHER

"Washington, 4th April, 1916.

"During the fourteen months that have passed since the opening of
the submarine campaign there have been intermittent periods in which
the American Government have shown themselves aggressive towards
us, and others in which the now proverbial expression 'watchful
waiting" formed the _Leit-motif_ of their attitude. The past month
belonged to the second category until the sinking of the _Sussex_
and other similar incidents stirred American public opinion to
fresh excitement. Officially I have, during the last four weeks,
heard nothing further from the American side on the subject of
the submarine campaign. During this time Mr. Lansing even allowed
himself a fortnight's holiday for recuperation. On my side there
was no occasion to reopen the submarine question as a complete
understanding with the American Government cannot be attained,[*]
and in my opinion it is advisable to avoid as far as possible any
new crisis in our relations with the United States. I therefore
contented myself with keeping in touch with Colonel House so that
I should not be taken by surprise by any _vo