History of the American Negro in the Great World War - William Allison Sweeney

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and bring about an agreement among the belligerents which would bring the submarine campaign within the restrictions of international law. Could such an agreement have been effected, it would have been of vast relief to this country and might have kept us out of the war. The Allies were willing to subscribe to any reasonable agreement provided there was assurance that it would be maintained. They pointed out, however, the futility of treating on the basis of promises alone with a nation which not only had shown a contempt for its ordinary promises, but had repudiated its sacred obligations.

       A ray of hope gleamed across our national horizon when Germany, on February 16, sent a note acknowledging her liability in the Lusitania affair. But the whole matter was soon complicated again by the "armed ship" issue. Germany had sent a note to the neutral powers that an armed merchant ship would be treated as a warship and would be sunk on sight. Secretary Lansing made the statement for this government that by international law commercial ships have a right to arm themselves for self-defense. It was an additional emphasis on the position that the submarine campaign as conducted by Germany was simply piracy and had no standing in international law. President Wilson, in a letter to Senator Stone February 24, said that American citizens had a right to travel on armed merchant ships, and he refused to advise them against exercising the right.

       March 24 the French steamer Sussex, engaged in passenger traffic across the English channel, was torpedoed and sunk without warning. About eighty passengers, including American citizens, were killed or wounded.

       Several notes passed between our government and Germany on the sinking of the Sussex and other vessels. Our ambassador at Berlin was instructed to take energetic action and to insist upon adequate attention to our demands. April 18 our government delivered what was considered an ultimatum to the effect that unless Germany abandoned her methods of submarine warfare, the United States would sever diplomatic relations. The president addressed congress on the matter the following day.

       Germany had not yet completed her program of submarine building and thought it wise to temporize with the American government for a while longer. May 4 she replied to the ultimatum of April 18, acknowledged the sinking of the Sussex and in the main acceded to all the demands of the United States. There were certain phases which indicated that Germany wished to use this country as a medium for securing certain agreements from the Allies. The president accepted the German conditions generally, but made it clear in his reply that the conditions could not depend upon any negotiations between this country and other belligerents. The intimation was plain enough that the United States would not be a catspaw for German aims.

       Up to this time in the year 1916 the advantage in arms had been greatly on the side of Germany and her allies. In January the British had evacuated the entire Gallipoli peninsula and the campaign in Turkey soon came to grief. Cettinje, the capital of Montenegro, had also fallen to the Teutonic allies, and that country practically was put out of the war.

       The British had made important gains in the German colonies in Africa and had conquered most of the Kamerun section there. Between February and July the Germans had been battling at the important French position of Verdun, with great losses and small results. Practically all the ground lost was slowly regained by the French in the autumn. The Russians had entered Persia in February, and April 17 had captured the important city of Trebizond in Armenia from the Turks. But on April 29 General Townshend surrendered his entire British force to the Turks at Kut el Amara, after being besieged for 143 days and finally starved into submission.

       Throughout the balance of the year the advantage was greatly on the side of the Germans, for the latter part of the year saw the beginning of the crushing of Roumania, which had entered the war August 27 on the side of the Allies. Bucharest, the capital, fell to the Germans December 6; Dobrudja, January 2, and Focsani, January 8 of the ensuing year, 1917. The crushing of Roumania was accomplished almost entirely by treachery. The Germans knew the plans of all the principal fortifications; the strength and plans of the Roumanian forces, and every detail calculated to be of benefit. The country had been honeycombed with their spies prior to and during the war, very much as Russia had been. It is quite evident that men high in the councils of the Roumanian government and in full possession of the military secrets of the country were simply disguised German agents.

       Between July and November had occurred the great battles of the Somme during which the Allies had failed to break the German lines. The Austrians in June had launched a great attack and made much progress against the Italians in the Trentino. The principal offsets to the German gains during the last seven months of the year 1916 were the Russian offensive in Volhynia and Bukovina, and the counter drive of the Italians against the Austrians. The Russians captured Czernovitz June 17, and by the end of the month had overrun the whole of Bukovina. The Italians drove out the Austrians between August 6 and September 1, winning August 9 the important city and fortress of Gorizia.

       Submarine incidents important to this government were not lacking during the latter half of the year. The German submarine U-53 suddenly appeared October 8 in the harbor at Newport, R.I. The commander delivered letters for the German ambassador and immediately put to sea to begin ravages on British shipping off the Nantucket coast. Among the five or six vessels sunk was the steamer Stephano, which carried American passengers. The passengers and crews of all the vessels were picked up by American destroyers and no lives were lost. The episode, which was an eight-day wonder, and resulted in a temporary tie-up of shipping in eastern ports, started numerous rumors and several legal questions, none of which, however, turned out finally to have been of much importance, as U-53 vanished as suddenly as it had appeared, and its visit was not succeeded by any like craft. It is not improbable that the purpose of the German government in sending the boat to our shores was to convey a hint of what we might expect if we should become involved with Germany. October 28 the British steamer Marina was torpedoed with a loss of six American lives.

       The straining of President Washington's advice and the Monroe Doctrine were again evident throughout the year. President Wilson in an address before the League to Enforce Peace, May 27, had said that the United States was ready to join any practical league for preserving peace and guaranteeing the political and territorial integrity of nations. November 29 our government sent a protest to Germany against the deportation of Belgians.

       Almost immediately upon the invasion of Belgium the German authorities, in pursuance of their system of terrorization, shipped to Germany considerable groups of the population. On October 12, 1915, a general order was issued by the German military government in Belgium providing that persons who should "refuse work suitable to their occupation and in the execution of which the military administration is interested," should be subject to one year's imprisonment or to deportation to Germany. Numerous sentences, both of men and women, were imposed under that order.

       The wholesale deportation of Belgian workmen to Germany, which began October 3, 1916, proceeded on different grounds, for, having stripped large sections of the country of machinery and raw materials, the military authorities now came forward with the plea that it was necessary to send the labor after it. The number of workmen deported is variously estimated at between one and three hundred thousand.

       "The rage, the terror, the despair" excited by this measure all over Belgium, our minister, Brand Whitlock, reported, "were beyond anything we had witnessed since the day the Germans poured into Brussels. I am constantly in receipt of reports from all over Belgium that bear out the stories of brutality and cruelty.

       "In tearing away from nearly every humble home in the land a husband and a father or a son and brother, the Germans have lighted a fire of hatred that will never go out. It is one of those deeds that make one despair of the future of the human race, a deed coldly planned, studiously matured, and deliberately and systematically executed, a deed so cruel that German soldiers are said to have wept in its execution, and so monstrous that even German officers are now said to be ashamed." Poland and the occupied parts of France experienced similar treatment.

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