New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 441 pages of information about New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915.

New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 441 pages of information about New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915.

[Illustration:  Map Showing Locations of Ships Attacked in Submarine War Zone with American Citizens Aboard.]

BRITISH CORONER’S VERDICT.

[By The Associated Press.]

KINSALE, Ireland, May 10.—­The verdict, rendered here today by the coroner’s jury, which investigated five deaths resulting from the torpedoing of the Lusitania, is as follows:

We find that 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.

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New York Times Current History; The European War, Vol 2, No. 3, June, 1915 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.