New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 | Page 2

are declared a war zone on and after Feb. 18, 1915.
Every enemy merchant ship found in this war zone will be destroyed,
even if it is impossible to avert dangers which threaten the crew and
passengers.
Also neutral ships in the war zone are in danger, as in consequence of
the misuse of neutral flags ordered by the British Government on Jan.
31, and in view of the hazards of naval warfare, it cannot always be
avoided that attacks meant for enemy ships endanger neutral ships.
Shipping northward, around the Shetland Islands, in the eastern basin
of the North Sea, and a strip of at least thirty nautical miles in breadth
along the Dutch coast, is endangered in the same way.
AMERICAN NOTE TO GERMANY.
Feb. 10, 1915.
The Secretary of State has instructed Ambassador Gerard at Berlin to
present to the German Government a note to the following effect:
The Government of the United States, having had its attention directed
to the proclamation of the German Admiralty, issued on the 4th of
February, that the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland,
including the whole of the English Channel, are to be considered as
comprised within the seat of war; that all enemy merchant vessels
found in those waters after the 18th inst. will be destroyed, although it
may not always be possible to save crews and passengers; and that
neutral vessels expose themselves to danger within this zone of war
because, in view of the misuse of neutral flags said to have been
ordered by the British Government on the 31st of January and of the
contingencies of maritime warfare, it may not be possible always to
exempt neutral vessels from attacks intended to strike enemy ships,
feels it to be its duty to call the attention of the Imperial German

Government, with sincere respect and the most friendly sentiments, but
very candidly and earnestly, to the very serious possibilities of the
course of action apparently contemplated under that proclamation.
The Government of the United States views those possibilities with
such grave concern that it feels it to be its privilege, and, indeed, its
duty, in the circumstances to request the Imperial German Government
to consider before action is taken the critical situation in respect of the
relation between this country and Germany which might arise were the
German naval forces, in carrying out the policy foreshadowed in the
Admiralty's proclamation, to destroy any merchant vessel of the United
States or cause the death of American citizens.
It is, of course, not necessary to remind the German Government that
the sole right of a belligerent in dealing with neutral vessels on the high
seas is limited to visit and search, unless a blockade is proclaimed and
effectively maintained, which this Government does not understand to
be proposed in this case. To declare or exercise a right to attack and
destroy any vessel entering a prescribed area of the high seas without
first certainly determining its belligerent nationality and the contraband
character of its cargo would be an act so unprecedented in naval
warfare that this Government is reluctant to believe that the Imperial
Government of Germany in this case contemplates it as possible.
The suspicion that enemy ships are using neutral flags improperly can
create no just presumption that all ships traversing a prescribed area are
subject to the same suspicion. It is to determine exactly such questions
that this Government understands the right of visit and search to have
been recognized.
This Government has carefully noted the explanatory statement issued
by the Imperial German Government at the same time with the
proclamation of the German Admiralty, and takes this occasion to
remind the Imperial German Government very respectfully that the
Government of the United States is open to none of the criticisms for
unneutral action to which the German Government believes the
Governments of certain other neutral nations have laid themselves open;
that the Government of the United States has not consented to or

acquiesced in any measures which may have been taken by the other
belligerent nations in the present war which operate to restrain neutral
trade, but has, on the contrary, taken in all such matters a position
which warrants it in holding those Governments responsible in the
proper way for any untoward effects on American shipping which the
accepted principles of international law do not justify; and that it,
therefore, regards itself as free in the present instance to take with a
clear conscience and upon accepted principles the position indicated in
this note.
If the commanders of German vessels of war should act upon the
presumption that the flag of the United States was not being used in
good faith and should destroy on the high seas an American vessel or
the lives of American