The Dominion. TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1915. GERMANY'S REPLY TO AMERICA

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2476, 1 June 1915, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1915. GERMANY'S REPLY TO AMERICA

The German reply to the American Note regarding the sinking of the Lusitania would seem to indicate that the authorities at Berlin still are not inclined to take protests from Washington very seriously. The United States Government ought to have learnt by this time that it is quite futile to appeal to the moral sense of the German nation or to tell the Kaiser and his advisers that they are violating the dictates of international law. German statesmen and newspapers have openly declared that they will allow neither law nor morality to restrain them from any methods of warfare which they may think necessary to secure victory. The German Govern-

men t will pay heed to nothing but force, and if the United States desires to protect her citizens from murder on the high seas by German pirates she must show in some way that admits of no chance of misunderstanding that she will hit back. The reply to America's remonstrance

is almost insulting iu its unabashed evasion of the material points at issue. It is a mere collection of unproved allegations and irrelevant assertions. Instead of giving a direct answer to the demand .from Washington for-an explanation regarding the loss of American lives and the violation of American rights, Germany insolently declares that she reserves her final decision until the United States has carefully studied the "facts" mentioned in the Berlin Note. _ Tho demand that Germany shall discontinue her submarine war-

fare on passenger steame;s and give guarantees that there will be no re-

petition of such an outrage as the sinking of the Lusitania is contemptuously ignored. Neither Amer-

ica nor any other neutral country is likely to get any satisfaction from Germany for violated rights unless they make it quite clear that t-hey n'jll fight her if necessary. The ink with which the Washington protest against the Lusitania outrage was written had scarcely dried before a

German submarine had sent to the bottom of the sea an American

steamer carrying coal for the American Fleet. Such an incident would never have occurred if the Germans had not made up their minds' that President Wilson is determined to cling to his policy of peace. When tho President tells the world (hat

there is practically nothing for which liis country is prepared to fight, it is not surprising that an unscrupulous Power like Germany does not hesitate to treat American protests however strongly worded as matters of light concern. As a New York journal recently stated, something more than a protest is needed if Germany is to be recalled to a sense of reason.

It is now America's turn to move. Tho President's Note, which has been doseribed as "whips and scorpions," has evoked no expression of regret from Berlin. No offer of reparation has been made, nor any promise to discontinue the savage practices to which objection was taken. America may bo "too proud to fight," but Germany is not too proud .to take the fullest advantage of a nation's unwillingness to go to war, whether such unwillingness is duo to pride or to weakness. The President recently said that there is "such a thing 'as being in the 1 right, and there being no need to convince others by force." He may have some other means of convincing Germany than by force that the rights of American citizens must be respected, but he has not yet taken the public into his confidence on this point. _ Ho now has an excellent opportunity of revealing his secret. There certainly are ways in which the United States could retaliate against German lawlessness and brutality without actually going to war. Tho .Yew Tnrfr Herald, in commenting on the sinking of the Lusitania, remarked that "a way out may be found for the United States', with dignity and honour, and without bloodshed." The prestige of America will certainly receive a

severe blow if on the present- occasion she herself to be flouted by Germany without taking drastic measures to enforce compliance with her just; demands. There can be no doubt that Me. Eoosevei,t expresses the views of a very bier section of the American people in his denunciation of the astonishing timidity of the authorities at Washington in connection with the war. In his recent book giving reasons why America should join the Allies, he writes:

To violate these conventions, io violate neutrality treaties, as Germany h;is done in the case of Belgium, is a dreadful wrong. , Tt represents the gravest kind of iii'tmiaiiunal wrongdoing, but it is really not quite so contemptible, it does not show such short-sighted and timid inefficiency, and, above all, such selfish indifference to the cause of permanent and righteous peace, as lias been shown by the United States in refusing to fulfil its solemn obligations by taking whatever notion was necessary in order to clear our skirts from the guilt of tame acquiescence in a wrong which wo had solemnly undertaken to oppose.

Since the above words were written the American people have been brought into closer touch with Teutonic .barbarism. IVir own kith and kin—defenceless men, women, ■antl children—have been murdered by the Germans, and the deed has been 'acclaimed with shunts of jubilation throughout the R.mpkr's dominions. Wo are Inld I hat no single act of the w.-ir has so outraged American opinion as the. sinking of tiie 1./ii.-ikanis. I s 'he. stohl. American Republic to confess to the world

that sho is unable or unwilling to insist upon the fullest reparation for the wrong she has suffered? Are her rights to bo trampled 011 with impunity? The patience of President Wilson may be inexhaustible, but thero are limits to the peaceful endurance of the American people.