HAVING SITUATION
The Government of the United States,
after having given careful consideration to the note, the imperial government of the 10th of April, regrets to state that the impression made upon it by the statements and proposals contained in that note is that the imperial government has failed to appreciate the gravity of the situation which has resulted. To alone from the attack on the Sussex, the whole method and character of submarine warfare as disclosed by the unrestrained practice of the commanders of German undersea craft during the past twelve months, and more in the indiscriminate destruction of merchant vessels of all nationalities, and declarations. If the knowledge of the Sussex had been an isolated case, the government might find it possible to hope that the officer who was responsible for that act had willingly violated his orders, or had been criminally negligent in taking none of the precautions they prescribed, and that the ends of justice might be satisfied by imposing upon him an adequate punishment, coupled with a formal disavowal of the act and payment of a suitable indemnity by the imperial government.  Though the attack upon the Sussex was not first and most indefensible and caused a loss of life so tragical as to make it stand forth as one of the most terrible examples of the inhumanity of submarine warfare as the commanders of German vessels are conducting it, it unhappily does not stand alone. 