File No. 763.72/2412b
The Secretary of State to Diplomatic Officers in European Countries
I said to the press men yesterday that the Government admitted that merchant vessels have legal right to arm for the sole purpose of defense; that as the Government is impressed with the reasonableness of the argument that a merchant vessel is presumptively armed for offensive purposes if it carries in these days an armament which makes it superior offensively to the submarine, which is now a recognized naval weapon, it feels that the present rule of international law permitting belligerent merchant vessels to arm ought to be changed; that nevertheless the Government does not feel that during the war it can change or disregard the established rule without the assent of the contending belligerents; that the proposal to the Entente powers of a modus vivendi for the protection of unarmed merchant vessels against attack without warning by submarines was made in the interest of obtaining for humanity’s sake the assent of the warring powers to the removal of armament of any sort from merchant ships during the present war; that this proposal, which was made only to the Entente powers, was made informally and until accepted by them there is no intention to submit it to the Teutonic powers; that it is hoped that the Entente powers will find it possible in order to lessen the danger to life to accept the arrangement; that, if the Entente powers reject it, the Government will, of course, feel compelled to cease its efforts to have the modus vivendi accepted and will rely upon the present established rule of international law that merchant ships are entitled to armament for defensive purposes only; and that nevertheless the Government feels free to change its regulations in regard to the evidence as to armament on merchant vessels arriving in American ports which would indicate that it was defensive only.
I added that there was no present intention to warn Americans to refrain from traveling on belligerent merchantmen armed with guns solely for the purpose of defense; that, if Americans should lose their lives in attack by submarines without warning upon merchantmen so armed, it will be necessary to regard the offense as a breach of international law and the formal assurances given by the German Government, but each case will require investigation as to the facts before action is determined; and that, while no protests have as yet gone forward to the Teutonic powers in regard to their recent declaration regarding submarine warfare, the Government may make inquiries of those powers to ascertain how they purpose to distinguish between armed and unarmed merchant vessels.