From ‘Germany and the United States’, The Spectator, 15 May 1915: The text of President Wilson’s Note to Germany on the sinking of the Lusitania has not been published at the time when we write, but there is no doubt that the unofficial summaries convey its sense accurately enough. It asks that some assurance shall be given that in future unarmed merchantmen carrying noncombatants shall be searched by the German Navy, and that the passengers and crew shall be transferred to a place of safety, before the prize is destroyed…
After his earlier declaration that Germany would be held to ‘strict accountability’ for the loss of American lives, Mr Wilson could not have done less than send such a Note. If he had acted literally on his words he would have done much more.
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