Long acquainted as this government has been with the character of the
Imperial Government, and with the high principles of equity by which
they have in the past been actuated and guided, the Government of the
United States cannot believe that the commanders of the vessels which
committed these acts of lawlessness did so except under a
misapprehension of the orders issued by the Imperial German naval
authorities. It takes for granted that, at least within the practical
possibilities of every such case, the commanders even of submarines were
expected to do nothing that would involve the lives of noncombatants or
the safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of failing of their object
of capture or destruction. It confidently expects, therefore, that the
Imperial German Government will disavow the acts of which the Government
of the United States complains; that they will make reparation so far as
reparation is possible for injuries which are without measure, and that
they will take immediate steps to prevent the recurrence of anything so
obviously subversive of the principles of warfare for which the Imperial
German Government have in the past so wisely and so firmly contended.
The government and people of the United States look to the Imperial
German Government for just, prompt, and enlightened action in this vital
matter with the greater confidence, because the United States and
Germany are bound together not only by ties of friendship, but also by
the explicit stipulations of the Treaty of 1828, between the United
States and the Kingdom of Prussia.
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