Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1916 — GENERAL AND STATE NEWS [ARTICLE]

GENERAL AND STATE NEWS

Telegraphic Reports From Many Parts of the Country. SNORT BITS OF THE UNUSUAL Happenings in the Nearby Cities and Towns—Matters of Minor Mention From Many Places. DISPUTE WITH ENGLAND Not Germaine and I. S. Will Not Even Discuss Issue. Washington, May B.—A note, cabled by Secretary Lansing to Ambassador Gerard today For delivery to the Berlin foreign office, informs the German government that the United States accepts its “declaration of its abandonment” of its former submarine policy, and now relies upon a scrupulous execution of the altered policy to remove the principal danger of au interruption of the good relations existing between the two countries. With this acceptance is coupled formal notice to Germany that the United States cannot for a moment entertain, much less discuss, a suggestion that respect by German naval authorities for the rights of citizens of the I'nited States on the high seas should in the slightest degree be made contingent upon conduct of any other government affecting the rights of neutrals and noncombatants. This is in reply to the concluding statement in the last German note to the effect that while submarine commanders had been ordered to sink no peaceful freight or passenger carrying ships without warning or without safety for passengers and crew, the German government would reserve to itself complete liberty of decision unless the United States was successful in its efforts to break the British blockade. Secretary Lansing issued a statement tonight saying that the greater part of Germany's answer to the demand of the I'nited States was devoted to matters which the American government could not discuss with the Berlin government, but he considered Germany had "yielded to our representations” and that “we can have no reason to quarrel with her” so long as the altered policy is lived up to.