Robert Bacon — Life And Letters [Illustrated Edition] by Scott James Brown;Root Root;Haig Field-Marshal Earl;

Author:Scott, James Brown;Root, Root;Haig, Field-Marshal Earl; [Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lucknow Books
Published: 2014-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

PART IX — MILITARY SERVICE

"Somewhere in France."

CHAPTER XVII — POST COMMANDANT AT CHAUMONT

ON JANUARY 19, 1917, Dr. Alfred Zimmermann, then Imperial German Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, sent a note to the German Ambassador in Washington, and directed him to transmit it to the German Minister in Mexico. In this note Doctor Zimmermann stated that Germany intended on February 1st to begin unrestricted submarine warfare, and that if the United States could not be kept neutral, Germany would propose to Mexico an alliance that the two countries would thereupon make war together, and peace together, and that in addition to financial support, Mexico was to reconquer its lost territory in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. It was further proposed that the President of Mexico, upon his own initiative, was to suggest to Japan when war with the United States had become a certainty, that Japan should adhere to the plan, and that the President of Mexico should offer to mediate between Japan and Germany. The note ended with the statement that the employment of ruthless submarine warfare promised to compel England to make peace within a few months.

President Wilson was informed by the German Ambassador on January 31st, before the contents of this note had become known to the Government of the United States, that on the morrow, the 1st of February, Germany would begin unrestricted submarine warfare, and that neutral vessels might be destroyed, if found in the neighbourhood of the British Isles, as it was impossible for the commanders of submarines to distinguish between enemy and neutral vessels! President Wilson directed Secretary of State Lansing to hand the German Ambassador his passports, and, appearing before Congress on the 3rd of February, outlined what he thought the United States should do under these changed conditions. Unrestricted submarine warfare went into effect, and American lives were lost and American property destroyed. Thereafter the Zimmermann note came to light, and was given to the press on the 1st of March, 1917. A month later President Wilson appeared before a joint session of the two Houses of Congress on April 2, 1917, and asked for a declaration of war. Congress complied with this request in the following Resolution, signed by the President on April 6, 1917:

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial German Government which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial German Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

It is useless to discuss whether we should have gone in immediately after the Lusitania outrage of May

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