US note on neutral flags

On 11 February 1915 the United States ambassador in London, Walter Hines Page, handed the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, a note on the use of the American flag by British merchant ships. Its text had been prepared the day before in Washington by the Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan.

The flag as a danger

The US government took note of the information, announced by the Germans on 4 February, that at the end of January Britain had explicitly authorised its merchant ships to fly neutral flags. In a note dated 6 February the German embassy in Washington drew the State Department’s attention to the fact that such a step exposed neutral ships to great danger, and suggested a protest in London. That same day the Lusitania sailed into Liverpool under the Stars and Stripes. The note referred directly to the case of the captain of the Lusitania, who had hoisted the American flag as he approached the British coast.

Bryan left for later the question of whether the deceptive use of a foreign flag to avoid capture was lawful at all. He did, however, address the justification which, according to press reports, the British had put forward, among other places in a Foreign Office statement. The occasional hoisting of the flag of a neutral or an enemy in the moment of immediate pursuit, to deceive an approaching enemy, was in his view something entirely different from an explicit sanction by a government for merchant ships to sail under a foreign flag in general in waters where enemy warships were to be expected. Such a policy meant that any neutral ship in the area could be taken for a belligerent’s ship, whatever its flag.

London’s responsibility

The note warned that if Germany put its declaration into effect, the general use of the American flag would give British ships no protection but would become a serious and constant danger to the lives of American citizens and to their ships. Washington asked London to restrain its ships from flying the US flag in the waters covered by the German declaration. A refusal, it pointed out, would make the British government share the responsibility for the loss of American lives and property in the event of a German attack.

Page put the matter to Grey and left him a memorandum with the American request. Grey replied that the Admiralty had already received instructions which in his view practically met Washington’s wishes, but he promised a fuller answer after consulting the government and the Admiralty. London delivered its formal reply on 19 February. In it the British explained that the captain of the Lusitania had hoisted the US flag at the request of American passengers and without orders from the government. They gave assurances that they did not intend to advise their ships to use foreign flags as a regular practice, but they refused to forbid it where it was a matter of avoiding capture or sinking.

Note to Berlin

Washington did not confine itself to a protest in London. On 10 February, the same day on which Bryan sent his instructions to Page, the State Department also addressed a note to Germany. It warned that if German warships destroyed an American vessel on the high seas or caused the death of US citizens, the United States government would hold Germany to “strict accountability”. This note was much sharper than the one sent to London, and its words were to become a point of reference in the following months in the American-German disputes over submarine warfare.