763.72111/2237½
President Wilson to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: Mr. Lansing’s argument seems to me unanswerable. Even if it were just to take the position that a warning that an unlawful and outrageous thing would be done might operate as an exemption from responsibility on the part of those who issued it, so far as our citizens were concerned, it is now too late to take it. We defined our position at the outset and cannot alter it,—at any rate so far as it affects the past.
Faithfully Yours,
Mr. Villard’s suggestion interests me very much; but the objections you make are certainly very vital ones.42 We can turn the matter over in our minds.