German submarine warfare; a study of its methods and spirit, including the crime of the "Lusitania," a record of observations and evidence . ll represent an honest effort by a submarinecommander to follow instructions from the menhigher up. The idea of frightfulness, as applied to submarinewar, would of course be for each commander, whenthe circumstances seem to him right, to behave withsuch ferocity that the entire South Irish Channeland other infested waters will be shunned by everymerchant seaman. Given a general idea such as this,and finding that the merchant seamen are strangelyunwilling
German submarine warfare; a study of its methods and spirit, including the crime of the "Lusitania," a record of observations and evidence . ll represent an honest effort by a submarinecommander to follow instructions from the menhigher up. The idea of frightfulness, as applied to submarinewar, would of course be for each commander, whenthe circumstances seem to him right, to behave withsuch ferocity that the entire South Irish Channeland other infested waters will be shunned by everymerchant seaman. Given a general idea such as this,and finding that the merchant seamen are strangelyunwilling to be terrified, there are hardly any lengthsto which a commander may not go in his flusteredhopelessness of bogeyizing our staunch sailors. Itis not improbable that some of the worst submarinecruelties have been frenzied attempts by commandersto put frightfulness across against men who do notseem even to know when they are frightened! Eut after all, whittle down the personal element aswe might, there remained among the Queenstowncases a small irreducible residuum of cases whose factsshowed flatly that the submarines men took more 154. GERMAN MOTIVES AND MORALS tHan cordially to their work, and were improvisingbarbarities on mere casual temptation, owing to down-right Frederick-the-Great bloodthirstiness. WJiilethere might be no positive criteria for decidingwhether given acts were conscientious attempts toterrify or were gratifications of innate privatecruelty, still there would be strong indications to-ward the latter conclusion. There would be a lackof self-possession and self-control about the Germanswhich showed that they were quite beside themselves,and were incapable of acting solely to carry out areasoned policy either of ruthlessness or frightful-ness. Flushed faces, stuttering objurgations, and im-promptu hectoring in ways that were almost as ridic-ulous as repellent—all these were signs that theU-boat men were simply giving free license to theirtempers and were yie
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectworldwar19141918
