841.857 Ar 1/106½
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of an Interview With the German Ambassador (Bernstorff), October 5, 1915, 10:30 a.m.
The German Ambassador called at my request in regard to the note which he had submitted to me, dated October 2d, concerning the Arabic case.62
I informed the Ambassador that when he handed me the note in New York on the 2d that as I then told him I was not prepared to comment upon it, although I congratulated him on having influenced his Government to secure an amicable settlement of the controversy. I also told him that after digesting the note I had submitted it to the President, without comment, and that he had reached substantially the same conclusion as I—namely, that it was not satisfactory in its present form.
The Ambassador asked me in what particulars it was not satisfactory. I pointed out to him that in the third (3) paragraph the German Government appeared to support entirely the commander of the submarine in the conviction which he had reached as to the purpose of the Arabic to ram the submarine. I told him that in view of the fact that the note stated that the attack of the submarine was against the instructions issued to the commander, this assertion appeared to be contradictory.
The Ambassador replied that he was willing to omit that from the note.
I also said that it was very unsatisfactory that the note failed to frankly disavow the act; that there was no question but that the language was open to the interpretation of the disavowal. The Ambassador said that that was his intention and I then asked him why he had not stated it in the note. He said he thought that he possibly could do so.
In regard to the last paragraph, relating to the payment of indemnity, I said to him that the note offered to pay an indemnity as an act of grace and that this Government could not accept it on that basis, for they considered there was a legal right to an indemnity. I suggested, however, that a controversy on this point could be avoided by a change of language.
[Page 486]The changes which I proposed I indicated on the note of October 2d, in lead pencil.63
The Ambassador said that he was not sure whether his instructions would permit him to go as far as these changes, but that he would go back to the Embassy and examine the instructions, and if they were broad enough he would make the changes proposed and would send me a new note within an hour.
When he left I was convinced that he would meet the wishes of this Government as he assured me his instructions were of the broadest character.
- Ante, p. 483.↩
- For the resulting text of the note dated Oct. 5, 1915, see Foreign Relations, 1915, supp., p. 560.↩