The negotiations between this country and Germany over the question of submarine warfare as affecting the lives of non-combatants and the rights of neutrals on the high seas in time of war had been carried on for two years. They had their origin on February 10, 1915, when, following the German announcement of February 4 that "the waters around Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole English Channel, are declared a war zone on and after February 18, 1915," William J. Bryan, then Secretary of State, sent the "strict accountability" note to Berlin. Through successive stages the exchange of diplomatic papers continued, with growing feeling on both sides, because of the acts of German submarines, until the torpedoing of the cross-Channel steamer Sussex, on March 24, 1916, when the lives of twenty-five American citizens were imperiled and several suffered bodily injuries or shock. This attack resulted in the "Sussex note," or so-called "ultimatum" to Germany. The Sussex note, signed by Secretary Lansing, and sent to Germany April 19, 1916, concluded with the following declaration: "Unless the Imperial Government should now immediately declare and effect an abandonment of its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels, the Government of the United States can have no choice but to sever diplomatic relations with the German Empire altogether." QUESTIONS GERMANY'S RIGHT. The first American note to the Imperial Government, of February 10, 1915, disputed the right of Germany to declare such a war zone as it had announced the week before, and contended for the international procedure of "visit and search" before attack on or capture of a neutral vessel. It embodied this phrase: "If such a deplorable situation should arise (wanton destruction of an American ship) the Imperial German Government can readily appreciate that the Government of the United States would be constrained to hold the Imperial German Government to a strict accountability for such acts of their naval authorities and to take any steps it might be necessary to take to safeguard American lives and property and to secure to Americans the full enjoyment of their acknowledged rights on the high seas." In reply the German Government sent a note under date of February 16, 1915, setting forth that the war zone proclamation was in reprisal for the "blockade" of Great Britain and that if "at the eleventh hour" the United States should prevail upon Germany's enemies to abandon their methods of maritime warfare, Germany would modify its order. It charged misuse of neutral flags and the arming of merchant ships by Great Britain.