462.11 T 41/21½
President Wilson to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: Although I have been silent for a long time about the case, I have had it much in my mind, as I have no doubt you have, to work out some practicable course of action with regard to the death of Thrasher; and I have the following to suggest as the outline of a note to the German Government:
- (1)
- State the circumstances, as we have officially received them.
- (2)
- We take it for granted that Germany has had no idea of changing the rules (or, rather, the essential principles) of international law with regard to the safety of non-combatants and of the citizens of neutral countries at sea, however radical the present change in practical conditions of warfare; and that she will, in accordance with her usual frankness in such matters, acknowledge her responsibility in the present instance.
- (3)
- Raise in a very earnest, though of course entirely friendly, way the whole question of the use of submarines against merchant vessels, calling attention circumstantially to the impossibility of observing [Page 378] the safeguards and precautions so long and so clearly recognized as imperative in such matters: the duty of visit and search; the duty, if the vessel proves to belong to an enemy and cannot be put in charge of a prize crew, to secure the safety of the lives of those on board; etc.
- (4)
- On these grounds enter a very moderately worded but none the less solemn and emphatic protest against the whole thing, as contrary to laws based, not on mere interest or convenience, but on humanity, fair play, and a necessary respect for the rights of neutrals.
My idea, as you will see, is to put the whole note on very high grounds,—not on the loss of this single man’s life, but on the interests of mankind which are involved and which Germany has always stood for; on the manifest impropriety of a single nation’s essaying to alter the understandings of nations; and as all arising out of her mistake in employing an instrument against her enemy’s commerce which it is impossible to employ in that use in accordance with any rules that the world is likely to be willing to accept.
Faithfully Yours,