841.857 L 97/138½
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections (Pomerene)
My Dear Senator: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of October 9, 1917, transmitting a copy of the address by the Honorable [Page 52] Robert M. La Follette before the Non-Partisan League Convention at Saint Paul, Minnesota, on September 20th last, which you inform me is now the subject matter of an investigation by the Senate Committee on Privileges and Elections. In your letter you quote certain extracts from this address and request, on behalf of the Committee mentioned, to be furnished with:
“a complete statement of the facts concerning the Lusitania incident and of the law relating thereto, both so far as it affects our international relations and the right of American citizens to travel upon the high seas on vessels of the character of the Lusitania,”
and especially to be advised as to:
“First—Did the Lusitania have on board ammunition or explosives?
“Second—Did the passengers aboard this vessel sail in violation of a statute of this country?
“Third—Did Mr. Bryan or the Department of State appeal to President Wilson to stop passengers from sailing upon the Lusitania?
“Fourth—To what extent did the grievances connected with the sinking of the Lusitania carry this country into the war?
“Fifth—Kindly also give us the diplomatic correspondence relating to the sinking of the Lusitania.”
In reply to your request, and particularly in answer to the first inquiry: “Did the Lusitania have on board ammunition or explosives?” I beg to enclose a copy of a letter dated June 2, 1915, from the Treasury Department and photographic copies of the original and supplemental manifests of the S. S. Lusitania transmitted therewith.43
As regards the second inquiry, viz.: “Did the passengers aboard this vessel sail in violation of a statute of this country?”, I would suggest that you request the Attorney-General to furnish you with the desired information, as it pertains to the interpretation of a federal statute.
In answer to the third inquiry, viz.: “Did Mr. Bryan or the Department of State appeal to President Wilson to stop passengers from sailing upon the Lusitania?”, I am advised the [that] neither Mr. Bryan nor any other officer of the Department of State appealed to the President to prevent passengers from sailing on the Lusitania.
As regards the fourth inquiry, viz.: “To what extent did the grievances connected with the sinking of the Lusitania carry this country into the war?”, I beg to say that the sinking of the Lusitania was only one—though in some respects the most monstrous—of several cases in which merchant ships with American citizens on board were sunk by German submarines without warning and without any regard [Page 53] for the safety of the persons on board, in violation of international law and the dictates of humanity. This case was immediately taken up with the German Government and formed the subject of considerable diplomatic correspondence in which the position of this Government was fully set forth and maintained. Copies of this correspondence have already been delivered to you. It will be observed from the paper of most recent date, namely, the note of the German Ambassador of September 1, 1915,44 that the German Government admitted the contentions of this Government that ships like the Lusitania should be warned, and that the safety of non-combatants should be assured, which procedure was understood to require visit and search. The German Government, in spite of its solemn promises, repeatedly attacked passenger vessels until finally it abandoned all pretense of fulfilling its engagements, and by its declaration of January 31, 1917 (see the note from the German Ambassador of that date),45 repudiated its promises and began a campaign of indiscriminate submarine warfare.
The destruction of the Lusitania was but one of the incidents in the lawless and inhuman policy of the German Government, which emphasized the evil character of that Government and made impossible any honorable adjustment of the controversy over its illegal and unprecedented use of submarines, or any dependence upon the undertaking of a Government which wilfully violated its word because it interfered with its ruthless policy.
In reply to the fifth inquiry, viz.: “Kindly also give us the diplomatic correspondence relating to the sinking of the Lusitama,” I take pleasure to enclose copies of the diplomatic correspondence requested.
A complete statement of the facts concerning the Lusitania incident and of the law relating thereto will be found in the instructions to the American Ambassador at Berlin particularly those of May 13, June 9, and July 21, 1915, respectively.46
I am [etc.]
- Enclosure not printed; for Summary of the Manifest, see vol. i, p. 435.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1915, supp., p. 530.↩
- Ibid., 1917, supp. 1, p. 97.↩
- For these instructions, see Ibid., 1915, supp., pp. 393, 436, and 480, respectively.↩