War on and under the Sea (2)

At the outset of the war the English and French fleets had set up a
strict blockade of Germany. There were certain substances which were
called "contraband of war" and which, according to the law of nations,
might be seized by one country if they were the property of her enemy.
On the list of contraband were all kinds of ammunition and guns, as
well as materials for making these. England and France, however, added
to the list which all nations before the war had admitted to be
contraband substances like cotton, which was very necessary in the
manufacture of gun-cotton and other high explosives, gasoline--fuel
for the thousands of automobiles needed to transport army supplies,
and rubber for their tires. Soon other substances were added to the
list.

An attempt was made to starve Germany into making peace. The central
empires, in ordinary years, raise only about three-fourths of the food
that they eat. With the great supply of Russian wheat shut off and
vessels from North America and South America not allowed to pass the
British blockade, Germany's imports had to come by way of Holland,
Switzerland, and the Scandinavian countries. When Holland in 1915
began to buy about four times as much wheat as she had eaten in 1913,
it did not take a detective to discover that she was secretly selling
to Germany the great bulk of what she was buying apparently for
herself. In a like manner Switzerland and the Scandinavian countries
suddenly developed a much greater appetite than before the war! The
British blockade grew stricter. It was agreed to allow these countries
to import just enough food for their own purposes. The British trusted
that they would rather eat the food themselves than sell it to Germany
even at very high prices. The Germans soon began to feel the pinch of
hunger. They had slaughtered many of their cows for beef and as a
result grew short of milk and butter.

To strike back at England, Germany announced that she would use her
submarines to sink ships carrying food to the British Isles. This
happened in February, 1915. There was a storm of protest from the
world in general, but Germany agreed that her submarine commanders
should warn each ship of its danger and allow the captain time to get
the passengers and crew into boats before the deadly torpedo was shot.
Still the crew, exposed to the danger of the ocean in open boats, and
often cast loose miles from shore, were in serious danger.

The laws of nations, as observed by civilized countries in wars up to
this time, have said that a blockade, in order to be recognized by all
nations, had to be successful in doing the work for which it was
intended. If England really was able to stop every boat sailing for
German shores, then all nations would have to admit that Germany was
blockaded; but if the Germans were able to sink only one ship out of
every hundred that sailed into English ports, Germany could hardly be
said to be carrying on a real blockade of England. In spite of
protests from neutral nations who were peaceably trying to trade with
all the countries at war, this sinking of merchantmen by submarines
went on.

In May, 1915, the great steamship Lusitania was due to sail from New
York for England. A few days before her departure notices signed by
the German ambassador were put into New York papers, warning people
that Germany would not be responsible for what happened to them if
they took passage on this boat. Very few people paid any attention to
these warnings. With over a thousand persons on board the Lusitania
sailed, on schedule time. Suddenly the civilized world was horrified
to hear that a German submarine, without giving the slightest warning,
had sent two torpedoes crashing through the hull of the great steamer,
sending her to the bottom in short order. A few had time to get into
the boats, but over eight hundred men, women, and children were
drowned, of whom over one hundred were American citizens. Strange as
it may seem, this action caused a thrill of joy throughout Germany.
Some of the Germans were horrified, as were people in neutral
countries, but on the whole the action of the German navy was approved
by the voice of the German people. With a curiously warped sense of
right and wrong the Germans proclaimed that the English and Americans
were brutal in allowing women and children to go on this boat when
they had been warned that the boat was going to be sunk! They spoke of
this much in the manner in which one would speak of the cruelty of a
man who would drive innocent children and women to march in front of
armies in order to protect the troops from the fire of their enemies.

A storm of indignation against Germany burst out all over the United
States. Many were for immediate war. Calmer plans, however, prevailed,
and the upshot of the matter was that a stern note was sent to Berlin
notifying the Kaiser that the United States could not permit vessels
carrying Americans to be torpedoed without warning on the open seas.
The German papers proceeded to make jokes about this matter. They
pictured every French and English boat as refusing to sail until at
least two Americans had been persuaded to go as passengers, so that
the boat might be under the protection of the United States.

However, in spite of Germany's solemn promise that nothing of the sort
would happen again, similar incidents kept occurring, although on a
smaller scale. The American steamers Falaba and Gulflight were
torpedoed without warning, in each case with the loss of one or two
lives. Finally, the steamer Sussex, crossing the English Channel, was
hit by a torpedo which killed many of the passengers. As several
Americans lost their lives, once more the United States warned Germany
that this must not be repeated. Germany acknowledged that her
submarine commander had gone further than his orders allowed him and
promised that the act should not be repeated--provided that the United
States should force England to abandon what Germany called her illegal
blockade. The United States in reply made it plain that while the
English blockade was unpleasant to American citizens, still it was
very different from the brutal murder of women and children on the
high seas. England, when convinced that an American ship was carrying
supplies which would be sold in the end to Germany, merely took this
vessel into an English port, where a court decided what the cargo was
worth and ordered the British government to pay that sum to the
(American) owners.

This was resented by the American shippers, but it was not anything to
go to war over. The United States gave warning that she would hold
Germany responsible for any damage to American ships or loss of
American lives.