The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1916. GRAVITY OF SITUATION IN AMERICA.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1916, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1916. GRAVITY OF SITUATION IN AMERICA.

The United States Government is still awaiting the arrival of sworn testimony concerning the loss of the Sussex, but tht- latest reports from Washington and New York indicate that a crisis is at hand. In view of the gravity of the situation President Wilson has cancelled his engagements, and in Wall Street there has taken place a general decline in the price of all stocks, consequent on the rumor that Count Bernstorff will be handed his passport within a fortnight. The evidence in support of the torpedoing of the Sussex is so clear and convincing that it will be impossible for the American Government not to come to the conclusion that it was a German submarine which destroyed that vessel. If sworn testimony is not credited t'liere are the fragments of the torpedo to speak for themselves. Moreover, Count Bernstorff has just intimated to the American Government that Germany's submarine campaign will continue until the end of the war unless Britain ceases her blockade. In the face of that pronouncement there is really no further justification for delay on the part of the United States in Severing diplomatic relations with a Power that openly avows its intention of continuing its policy of piracy and murder on the high seas. The New York papers openly deride Germany's last Note to America, and with very good cause, .and they assert that diplomatic relations must be severed by reason of the fact that Germany lias obliterated the only basis whereon such relations are conductable. (President Wilson and his Cabinet are faced with a crisis which can only be met in one way. They have temporised far too long, only to earn the ridicule of the Teutons and to lose the respect of the civilised world, and if they cannot now screw up sufficient courage to act in the right way, they will certainly part with the right to be considered one of the Great Powers, and be relegated to the rank of a small State that is governed by fear. In contrast with brave Belgium, the United States, with its vast territory, resources, and teeming millions, presents a sorry picture to the world at hvge, but it wolild seem that the trend of events is too strong a current to resist, and America will probably be forced to uphold her dignity and importance.