New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 | Page 5

the deceased met death from prolonged immersion and
exhaustion in the sea eight miles south-southeast of Old Head of
Kinsale, Friday, May 7, 1915, owing to the sinking of the Lusitania by
torpedoes fired by a German, submarine.
We find that the appalling crime was committed contrary to
international law and the conventions of all civilized nations.
We also charge the officers of said submarine and the Emperor and the
Government of Germany, under whose orders they acted, with the
crime of wholesale murder before the tribunal of the civilized world.
We desire to express sincere condolences and sympathy with the
relatives of the deceased, the Cunard Company, and the United States,
many of whose citizens perished in this murderous attack on an
unarmed liner.

GERMAN NOTE OF REGRET.
_BERLIN, (via London,) May 10.--The following dispatch has been
sent by the German Foreign Office to the German Embassy at
Washington:_
Please communicate the following to the State Department: The
German Government desires to express its deepest sympathy at the loss
of lives on board the Lusitania. The responsibility rests, however, with
the British Government, which, through its plan of starving the civilian
population of Germany, has forced Germany to resort to retaliatory
measures.
In spite of the German offer to stop the submarine war in case the
starvation plan was given up, British merchant vessels are being
generally armed with guns and have repeatedly tried to ram submarines,
so that a previous search was impossible.
They cannot, therefore, be treated as ordinary merchant vessels. A
recent declaration made to the British Parliament by the Parliamentary
Secretary in answer to a question by Lord Charles Beresford said that at
the present practically all British merchant vessels were armed and
provided with hand grenades.
Besides, it has been openly admitted by the English press that the
Lusitania on previous voyages repeatedly carried large quantities of
war material. On the present voyage the Lusitania carried 5,400 cases
of ammunition, while the rest of her cargo also consisted chiefly of
contraband.
If England, after repeated official and unofficial warnings, considered
herself able to declare that that boat ran no risk and thus light-heartedly
assumed responsibility for the human life on board a steamer which,
owing to its armament and cargo, was liable to destruction, the German
Government, in spite of its heartfelt sympathy for the loss of American
lives, cannot but regret that Americans felt more inclined to trust to
English promises rather than to pay attention to the warnings from the
German side.
FOREIGN OFFICE.
ENGLAND ANSWERS GERMANY.[A]
[By The Associated Press.]
[Footnote A: In Germany's reply to the American protest against certain
features of the "war zone" order, which was received in Washington on

Feb. 14, occurred this expression:
If the United States ... should succeed at the last moment in removing
the grounds which make that procedure [submarine warfare on
merchant vessels] an obligatory duty for Germany ... and thereby make
possible for Germany legitimate importation of the necessaries of life
and industrial raw material, then the German Government ... would
gladly draw conclusions from the new situation.
In the German note to the American Government justifying the sinking
of the Lusitania presented above, appears this clause:
In spite of the German offer to stop the submarine war in case the
starvation plan was given up....
These two expressions are referred to in the British official statement,
published herewith, in these words:
It was not understood from the reply of the German Government [of
Feb. 14] that they were prepared to abandon the principle of sinking
British vessels by submarine.
Whether this may regarded as an opening for the renewal of the
German offer in explicit terms, with the implication that England might
accept it, is not explained.]
_LONDON, Wednesday, May 12.--Inquiry in official circles elicited
last night the following statement, representing the official British view
of Germany's justification for torpedoing the Lusitania which Berlin
transmitted to the State Department at Washington:_
The German Government states that responsibility for the loss of the
Lusitania rests with the British Government, which through their plan
of starving the civil population of Germany has forced Germany to
resort to retaliatory measures The reply to this is as follows:
As far back as last December Admiral von Tirpitz, (the German Marine
Minister,) in an interview, foreshadowed a submarine blockade of
Great Britain, and a merchant ship and a hospital ship were torpedoed
Jan. 30 and Feb. 1, respectively.
The German Government on Feb. 4 declared their intention of
instituting a general submarine blockade of Great Britain and Ireland,
with the avowed purpose of cutting off supplies for these islands. This
blockade was put into effect Feb. 18.
As already stated, merchant vessels had, as a matter of fact, been sunk
by a German submarine at the end