THE WORLD WAR: PERIOD OF AMERICAN NEUTRALITY  377



  In view of the importance of the subject I am inclined to think it
would be well to bring the matter up at the Cabinet meeting so that
we can get the opinions from as many angles as possible.
  With assurances [etc.]                          W. J. BRYAN

462.11 T 41/8
[Jhe Counselor for the Departntentt of State (Lansing) to President
                             Wilson
                                  WASHINGTON, April 10, 1915.
  DEAR MR. PRESIDENT: I enclose the telegrams received from Consul
General Skinner regarding the sinking of the Falaba.23
  The significant fact to my mind is that the submarine's commander
allowed ten minutes for the crew and passengers to leave the vessel,
showing that he did not act on the suspicion that the vessel was
armed and might attack him. If he had allowed no time for escape,
he might enter that plea, but, since he gave some time, he should have
given sufficient.
  It seems to me that the question of arming British vessels, or
Germany's belief that it is being done, disappears from the Falaba
case.
      Very sincerely yours,
                                               ROBERT LANSING

462.11 T 41/21i
           President Wilson to the Secretary of State
                                   WASHINGTON, 22 April, 1915.
  MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY: Although I have been silent for a long
time about the case, I have had it much in my mind, as I have no
doubt you have, to work out some practicable course of action with
regard to the death of Thrasher; and I have the following to sug-
gest as the outline of a note to the German Government:
  (1) State the circumstances, as we have officially received them.
  (2) We take it for granted that Germany has had no idea of
changing the rules (or, rather, the essential principles) of interna-
tional law with regard to the safety of non-combatants and of the citi-
zens of neutral countries at sea, however radical the present change
in practical conditions of warfare; and that she will, in accordance
with her usual frankness in such matters, acknowledge her responsi-
bility in the present instance.
  (3) Raise in a very earnest, though of course entirely friendly,
way the whole question of the use of submarines against merchant
vessels, calling attention circumstantially to the impossibility of ob-

2"Ibid., pp. 359, 362, 364.