File No. 763.72/2525

The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador (Spring Rice)3

My Dear Mr. Ambassador: I have received your courteous letter of the 23d ultimo4 and given careful consideration to the memorandum [Page 224] enclosed relating to the proposal for an agreement to disarm merchant vessels by the Entente powers, which I unofficially submitted to you in my letter of January 18, 1916.

The proposal was made with the humane purpose of removing the principal reason given by the German and Austro-Hungarian Governments for the failure of their submarines to comply strictly with the rules of naval warfare in intercepting the merchant vessels of their enemies on the high seas, a practice which has resulted in an appalling loss of life among the passengers and crews of vessels which have been attacked without warning.

Believing that an arrangement, such as I had the honor to propose, would have resulted in the discontinuance by Germany and Austria-Hungary of a method of attack on merchant vessels which puts in jeopardy the lives of hundreds of men, women, and children of neutral as well as belligerent nationality, I can not but regret that the Governments of the Entente powers could not see their way to accede to the proposal.

The Entente governments having, however, reached a decision to decline the proposed arrangement, it becomes my duty to accept their decision as final, and in the spirit in which they have made it.

I am [etc.]

Robert Lansing

[For a summary of the Chancellor’s remarks on submarine policy in his speech to the Reichstag, see telegram No. 3712, April 5, 1916, received April 7, from the Ambassador in Germany, ante, page 23.]

  1. The same, mutatis mutandis, to the French, Russian, and Italian Ambassadors and the Belgian Minister.
  2. Ante, p. 211.