841.857 L 97/125½
President Wilson to the Secretary of State
My Dear Mr. Secretary: I have tried hard to find something in this note about the Lusitania93 out of which a satisfactory answer to our demands could be made, but must admit that I have failed. It is a concession of grace, and not at all of right.
And yet I do not see that it would be essentially out of tune with it if the Imperial Government were to say that, even while it was arguing and without abatement insisting on the necessity for retaliation and even the right to retaliate, it was not willing to make that necessity an excuse for abbreviating the rights of neutrals or for unnecessarily imperiling the lives of non-combatants, and that, therefore, [Page 516] while wishing to make very plain the imperative grounds for its recent policy, it was ready to recognize very frankly the justice of the contentions of the United States with regard to the rights of American citizens and assume the responsibility which she (the Imp. Gov.) had incurred by the incidental ignoring of those rights on the occasion referred to.
She could in this wise put Great Britain more obviously in the wrong as compared with herself, by showing that she, in contrast with Great Britain, was willing to make good for the damage done neutrals.
I understand you had a conference with Bernstorff to-day. Do you think from the present aspect of the situation that a suggestion such as I have outlined would set the settlement a step forward, or not?
Faithfully Yours,