File No. 763.72/1579
The British Ambassador (Spring Rice) to the Secretary of State
In a German official statement published to-day in the American press it is asserted that the German Government has been obliged to resort as a measure of self-defense to the practice of destroying merchant ships by submarines without notice and that this new method of warfare is forced upon them by British interference with food destined for the civilian population of Germany as exemplified in the detention of the Wilhelmina.
This new method of warfare was indeed resorted to at an early date in the present war, for the passenger ship Amiral Ganteaume with two thousand unarmed refugees on board, mostly women and children, was torpedoed and sunk by a German submarine on October the 26th last, when on the way from Calais to Havre. With regard to the particular argument that such action is taken in consequence of the seizure of the cargo on the Wilhelmina it may be pointed out that the Wilhelmina arrived at Falmouth on February the 9th and that two British merchant vessels were torpedoed without notice on January the 30th, and the British hospital ship Asturias fired at with a torpedo on February the 1st.
Evidence which has reached this Embassy affords ground for the belief that the voyage of the Wilhelmina was undertaken with the cognisance of German agents in this country and that it was in direct relation with the intended proclamation of the war zone by the Imperial German Government. That Government, however, does not appear to have waited for the detention of the Wilhelmina, for unarmed British merchant ships were sunk without notice at least a week before the Wilhelmina was detained.
The German note also claims that the new method of warfare is justified by the reported arming of merchant ships. Should that [Page 117] take place it is evident that since the German announcement the British Government must now hold themselves free to use a self-defensive armament in anticipation of certain attacks, as the United States has itself done in the past. It will, however, be observed that any new measures now adopted by British merchant vessels will necessarily be a consequence and not a justification of the announcement that German submarines will sink merchant vessels without regard for the lives of the passengers and the non-combatant crews.