THE LANSING PAPERS, 1914-1920, VOLUME I



  Citizens of the United States on the Lusitania were justified in the
belief that the recognized rules of warfare would be applied in the
event that the steamship was intercepted by a German war vessel.
  The sinking of the Lusitania being in violation of the interna-
tional rules of naval warfare the act was illegal and so far as the
lives of citizens of the United States are concerned imposed upon the
German Government liability therefor.
  The German Government, having in its instructions to its naval
officers issued subsequent to the event shown its recognition that the
sinking of the Lusitania was contrary to the rules of naval warfare
and to the principles of humanity, expresses profound regret that
citizens of the United States suffered by reason of the act of its
naval authorities in sinking the Lusitania, declares it to have been
in contravention of international law, and offers to make reparation
for the lives of citizens of the United States which were lost, by
the payment of a suitable indemnity.
  NOVEMBER 11, 1915.

763.72/2269h
           President Wilson to the Secretary of State

                               WASHINGTON, 17 November, 1915.
  MY DEAR MR. SECRETARY: I believe that neither you nor I are
satisfied with this formula, but I think that it is probably the best
that can be drawn, and I hope that you will press it upon the German
Imperial Government. I have kept it in the hope that I could sug-
gest something more satisfactory, but I have not been able to formu-
late anything that pleased me at all.
      Faithfully Yours,
                                                         W.W.

763.72/2270O
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of an Interview With the
                German Ambassador (Bernstorif)

                             [WASHINGTON,] November 17, 1915.
  The German Ambassador called upon me this afternoon at the
Department at my request. I told him that it seemed necessary that
the Lusitania case should be settled if possible within a very short
time-that the recent sinking of the Ancona, although acknowledged
by Austria to have been done by her submarine, had aroused deep
feeling in this country; that the peculiar thing was that in spite of
the Austrian admission the blame was falling upon Germany as being
the dominant power in the Central Alliance.



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