865.857 An 2/71
The Secretary of State to
President Wilson
Washington,
December 17, 1915.
My Dear Mr. President: I send you a draft of a
proposed reply to the Austrian note.78 I have
studied the note with care and feel that we should avoid the pitfall of
further correspondence. The essential fact is admitted by the Austrian
Admiralty; the principles of law and humanity cannot be debated. I feel
that it would be contrary to our dignity to continue a discussion of
this sort. I realize that the proposed reply is practically an ultimatum
and I feel fully the responsibility of sending it. But what other course
is open to us if we wish to maintain our self-respect as a Government?
It is a crisis which seems unavoidable.
If there is any other way of treating the Austrian note I would be very
glad to be instructed, but discussion of the subjects treated in the
note seems to me impossible in view of the position we have taken.
[Page 500]
I am sorry to trouble you with this at the present time, but I feel that
we should reply to the note very promptly and especially so if we do not
intend to continue to discuss the case.
Faithfully yours,
[Enclosure]
Draft Telegram to the Ambassador in
Austria-Hungary (Penfield)
You are instructed to address a note to the Austro-Hungarian Minister
of Foreign Affairs, textually as follows:
“The Government of the United States has received the note of
your Excellency relative to the sinking of the Ancona, which was delivered at Vienna on December
fifteenth, nineteen-fifteen, and transmitted to Washington, and
has given the note very careful consideration.
“The admission in the report of the Austro-Hungarian Admiralty
which was transmitted to this Government by the Austro-Hungarian
Chargé d’Affaires at Washington that the Ancona was torpedoed after her engines had stopped and
when passengers were still on board is a sufficient fact alone
to condemn the officer responsible for the sinking of the vessel
as having wilfully violated the recognized law of nations and
those humane principles which a belligerent should observe in
the conduct of hostile operations. The details of the sinking of
the vessel; the witnesses corroborating the Admiralty’s report;
the number of Americans killed and injured, are not essential to
the establishment of the guilt of the commander. The fact is
that citizens of the United States were killed, injured, or put
in jeopardy by the commander’s lawless act.
“The rules of international law and the principles of humanity,
which were so grossly violated by the commander of the
submarine, have been too generally recognized and too manifest
from the stand-point of right and justice to admit of debate.
The Government of the United States therefore has no other
course but to hold the Austro-Hungarian Government responsible
for the admitted conduct of the commander of the submarine. As
this Government holds these views as to the illegality of the
act and the responsibility therefor, the Imperial and Royal
Government must realize that the Government of the United States
cannot further discuss the admitted circumstances of the case or
the established law and principle violated by the commander. The
Government of the United States can only repeat the demands
which it made in its note of December sixth, nineteen-fifteen,
sincerely hoping that with the foregoing explanation of its
position the Imperial and Royal Government will perceive the
justice of those demands and comply with them in the same spirit
of frankness and regard for good relations with which they were
made.”
