2: The Severance of Diplomatic Relations with Germany
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Message to the Congress
February 3, 1917
Gentlemen of the Congress:
The Imperial German Government, on the 3Ist of January, announced to
this Government and to the Governments of the other neutral nations
that on and after the first day of February, the present month, it
would adopt a policy with regard to the use of submarines against all
shipping seeking to pass through certain designated areas of the high
seas to which it is clearly my duty to call your attention.
Let me remind the Congress that on the 18th of April last, in view of
the sinking on the 24th of March of the cross-Channel passenger steamer Sussex by a German submarine, without summons or warning, and
the consequent loss of the lives of several citizens of the United
States who were passengers aboard her, this Government addressed a
note to the Imperial German Government in which it made the following
declaration:
If it is still the purpose of the Imperial German Government to
prosecute relentless and indiscriminate warfare against vessels
of commerce by the use of submarines without regard to what the
Government of the United States must consider the sacred and
indisputable rules of international law and the universally
recognized dictates of humanity, the Government of the United States
is at last forced to the conclusion that there is but one course it
can pursue. Unless the German Government should now immediately
declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of submarine
warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels the Government
of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic
relations with the German Empire altogether.
Germany's U-Boat Pledge
In reply to this declaration the German Government gave this
Government the following assurances:
The German Government is prepared to do its utmost to confine the
operations of war for the rest of its duration to the fighting
forces of the belligerents, thereby insuring the freedom of the seas,
a principle upon which the German Government believes, now as before,
to be in agreement with the Government of the United States.
The German Government, guided by this idea, notifies the Government
of the United States that the German naval forces have received the
following orders:
In accordance with the general principles of visit and search and
destruction of merchant vessels recognized by international law,
such vessels, both within and without the area declared as naval
war zone, shall not be sunk without warning and without saving
human lives, unless these ships attempt to escape or offer resistance.
But neutrals cannot expect that Germany, forced to fight for her
existence, shall, for the sake of neutral interest, restrict the use
of an effective weapon if her enemy is permitted to continue to apply
at will methods of warfare violating the rules of international law.
Such a demand would be incompatible with the character of neutrality,
and the German Government is convinced that the Government of the
United States does not think of making such a demand, knowing that
the Government of the United States has repeatedly declared that it
is determined to restore the principle of the freedom of the seas
from whatever quarter it has been violated.
How the United States Replied
To this the Government of the United States replied on the 8th of May,
accepting, of course, the assurances given, but adding:
The Government of the United States feels it necessary to state that
it takes it for granted that the Imperial German Government does not
intend to imply that the maintenance of its newly announced policy
is in any way contingent upon the course or result of diplomatic
negotiations between the Government of the United States and any
other belligerent Government, notwithstanding the fact that certain
passages in the Imperial Government's note of the 4th instant might
appear to be susceptible to that construction. In order, however,
to avoid any possible misunderstanding, the Government of the United
States notifies the Imperial Government that it cannot for a moment
entertain, much less discuss, a suggestion that respect by German
naval authorities for the rights of citizens of the United States
upon the high seas should in any way or in the slightest degree be
made contingent upon the conduct of any other Government affecting
the rights of neutrals and non-combatants. Responsibility in such
matters is single, not joint; absolute, not relative.
To this note of the 8th of May the Imperial German Government made no
reply.
On the 31st of January, the Wednesday of the present week, the German
Ambassador handed to the Secretary of State, along with a formal note,
a memorandum which contains the following statement:
Germany's New Policy
The Imperial Government, therefore, does not doubt that the Government
of the United States will understand the situation thus forced upon
Germany by the Entente Allies' brutal methods of war and by their
determination to destroy the Central Powers, and that the Government
of the United States will further realize that the now openly
disclosed intentions of the Entente Allies give back to Germany the
freedom of action which she reserved in her note addressed to the
Government of the United States on May 4, 1916.
Under these circumstances Germany will meet the illegal measures
of her enemies by forcibly preventing, after February 1, 1917,
in a zone around Great Britain, France, Italy, and in the eastern
Mediterranean all navigation, that of neutrals included, from and
to France, etc. All ships met within the zone will be sunk.
I think that you will agree with me that, in view of this declaration,
which suddenly and without prior intimation of any kind deliberately
withdraws the solemn assurance given in the Imperial Government's note
of the 4th of May, 1916, this Government has no alternative consistent
with the dignity and honor of the United States but to take the course
which, in its note of the 18th of April, 1916, it announced that it
would take in the event that the German Government did not declare and
effect an abandonment of the methods of submarine warfare which it was
then employing and to which it now purposes again to resort.
All Relations Broken Off
I have, therefore, directed the Secretary of State to announce to his
Excellency the German ambassador that all diplomatic relations between
the United States and the German Empire are severed, and that the
American ambassador at Berlin will immediately be withdrawn, and, in
accordance with this decision, to hand to his Excellency his passports.
Notwithstanding this unexpected action of the German Government, this
sudden and deeply deplorable renunciation of its assurances, given
this Government at one of the most critical moments of tension in the
relations of the two Governments, I refuse to believe that it is the
intention of the German authorities to do in fact what they have
warned us they will feel at liberty to do. I cannot bring myself to
believe that they will indeed pay no regard to the ancient friendship
between their people and our own or to the solemn obligations which
have been exchanged between them and destroy American ships and take
the lives of American citizens in the wilful prosecution of the
ruthless naval program they have announced their intention to adopt.
Only actual overt acts on their part can make me believe it even now.
Will Protect American Rights
If this inveterate confidence on my part in the sobriety and prudent
foresight of their purpose should unhappily prove unfounded, if
American ships and American lives should, in fact, be sacrificed by
their naval commanders in heedless contravention of the just and
reasonable understandings of international law and the obvious
dictates of humanity, I shall take the liberty of coming again before
the Congress to ask that authority be given me to use any means that
may be necessary for the protection of our seamen and our people in
the prosecution of their peaceful and legitimate errands on the high
seas. I can do nothing less. I take it for granted that all neutral
Governments will take the same course.
I do not desire any hostile conflict with the Imperial German
Government. We are the sincere friends of the German people and
earnestly desire to remain at peace with the Government which speaks
for them. We shall not believe that they are hostile to us until we
are obliged to believe it; and we purpose nothing more than the
reasonable defense of the undoubted rights of our people. We wish to
serve no selfish ends. We seek merely to stand true alike in thought
and in action to the immemorial principles of our people which I
sought to express in my address to the Senate only two weeks ago—seek
merely to vindicate our right to liberty and justice and an unmolested
life. These are bases of peace, not war. God grant we may not be
challenged to defend them by acts of wilful injustice on the part of
the Government of Germany.
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