“4.  At various times during the war German submarines have stopped and sunk British merchant vessels, thus making the sinking of merchant vessels a general practice, though it was admitted previously, if at all, only as an exception, the general rule to which the British Government have adhered being that merchant vessels, if captured, must be taken before a prize court.  In one case already quoted in a note to the United States Government a neutral vessel carrying foodstuffs to an unfortified town in Great Britain has been sunk.  Another case is now reported in which a German armed cruiser has sunk an American vessel, the William P. Frye, carrying a cargo of wheat from Seattle to Queenstown.  In both cases the cargoes were presumably destined for the civil population.  Even the cargoes in such circumstances should not have been condemned without the decision of a prize court, much less should the vessels have been sunk.  It is to be noted that both these cases occurred before the detention by the British authorities of the Wilhelmina and her cargo of foodstuffs, which the German Government allege is the justification for their own action.

“The Germans have announced their intention of sinking British merchant vessels by torpedo without notice and without any provision for the safety of the crews.  They have already carried out this intention in the case of neutral as well as of British vessels, and a number of non-combatant and innocent lives on British vessels, unarmed and defenseless, have been destroyed in this way.

“5.  Unfortified, open, and defenseless towns, such as Scarborough, Yarmouth, and Whitby, have been deliberately and wantonly bombarded by German ships of war, causing in some cases considerable loss of civilian life, including women and children.

“6.  German aircraft have dropped bombs on the east coast of England, where there were no military or strategic points to be attacked.  On the other hand, I am aware of but two criticisms that have been made on British action in all these respects: 

“1.  It is said that the British naval authorities also have laid some anchored mines on the high seas.  They have done so, but the mines were anchored and so constructed that they would be harmless if they went adrift, and no mines whatever were laid by the British naval authorities till many weeks after the Germans had made a regular practice of laying mines on the high seas.

“2.  It is said that the British Government have departed from the view of international law which they had previously maintained, that foodstuffs destined for the civil population should never be interfered with, this charge being founded on the submission to a prize court of the cargo of the Wilhelmina.  The special considerations affecting this cargo have already been presented in a memorandum to the United States Government, and I need not repeat them here.