German Threats and America's Response
The statement of the German Foreign Office spokesman on Saturday that his Government would regard the handing over to Britain of German and other ships in American ports as " a warlike act " has not impressed America. The Germans are greatly mistaken if they think that they can influence American opinion by noisy threats. Moreover, it is obvious enough that Germany would not go to war because the United States had handed over ships unless she thought it suited her to go to war in any case. If the Americans decide to release the vessels they will, of course, be careful to employ a legal proce- dure, but their action will be guided by what Mr. Knudsen, organiser of the new munitions-production drive in the U.S.A., describes as " consciousness of the heightened gravity of the world situation " and the recognition that the contest which has produced this crisis is irreconcilable in character." The Ger- man demand that three members of the American Embassy staff in Paris should be withdrawn has, of course, been com- plied with. Mr. Cordell Hull at once admitted the right of any Government to make such a demand about personae non gratae. But that is a right which belongs to both sides. The Republican isolationist, Hamilton Fish, remarked last Satur- day that the removal of Germany's " spies and agitators " from the United States was indispensable to the improvement of relations. Threatening talk addressed to small countries con- tiguous to Germany no doubt is effective; but to address such language to the United States seems to the American man in the street futile and foolish.
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