Show W ILSON TO DEM NO EXPLICIT ANSWER STON DEFINITE STATEMENT fram GERMANY ON 16 OF NEUTRALS unfavorable pes response to next in will result in severance of diplomatic relation relations and possibly other step steps Iv washington ashington president wilson determined ter mined on tuesday that the united states mu must st ascertain definitely and very promptly from germany whether shet ber th the e government intends in the future to be guided by tho the ac cepter principles of international law and the rights of neutrals or to to follow its jig own rules of maritime warfare the president listened to a varied expression of opinion at a meeting of his cabinet taking little part in the discussion himself later ho he began the tte preparation of a note embodying his own ideas and what seemed to him the consensus of opinion of his official family the erdice of a majority of the cabinet was that tho german reply to the american note noto folli following wing the sinking of jhb Lual tanta was unresponsive spon sive ive and unsatisfactory that it disregarded inu in good will of the united doubted its facts and disclaimed all lamo for the destruction of the merchantman with american the questions of fact raised by germany were vere regarded as irrelevant at this time the trend of opinion was that the united states must inquire and obtain an early answer as to germany intends to recognize the hitherto accepted principle that neutrals may travel anywhere on the high seas on an unarmed merchant merc nant ship ships even if carrying contraband and that merchantmen which do not resist realist capture must be visited and searched and the passengers and crew transferred to a place of safety before the vessel la Is destroyed an unfavorable answer to this in would lead it was predicted in official quarters to a severance of at diplomatic relations on the ground that the united states could not con dinue Inter intercourse courso wila a government which repudiated these principles steps then would ie le taken to inform americans of the dangers to which they were exposed as a result of thir thle action and such measures as feces ears sary adopted to safeguard the live lives and interests of citizens of the united states should germany accept the prin ciple in a way that would a sua guarantee rantee for the future the amer lean ican government would reiterate its demand for a strict accountability for violations of this principle and th the killing ot of americans in the torpedoing without warning of the lusitania |