Lusitania Note (1915)

Commentary

The 1914 naval blockade by British forces nearly stopped the flow of supplies to Germany. As a result, in 1915 Germany announced that it would sink any ship found in the waters off Britain. On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the British passenger liner Lusitania, killing more than one thousand people (including 128 Americans). The American government's indignation was expressed in the following note from Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan (1860–1925), to be delivered to the German minister of foreign affairs.

Washington, May 13, 1915.

Please call on the Minister of Foreign Affairs and after reading to him this communication leave with him a copy.

In view of recent acts of the German authorities in violation of American rights on the high seas which culminated in the torpedoing and sinking of the British steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which over 100 American citizens lost their...