Part 29

May 13--The text of the American note to Germany is made public at Washington; besides the Lusitania, it mentions the Falaba, Cushing, and Gulflight cases; it states that the United States Government expects a disavowal of the acts of the German commanders, reparation for the injuries, and a prevention of such acts in the future; it indicates that submarine warfare should be given up; it refers to the "surprising irregularity" of the German Embassy's advertisement warning Americans to keep off British ships, and states that notice of an unlawful act cannot be an excuse for its commission; it states that Germany will not expect the United States "to omit any word or any act" necessary to maintain American rights.

May 14--The American note to Germany has been delayed in transmission, and is not presented yet; President Wilson and the Cabinet are pleased with the response of the country to the note, which is praised generally by newspapers and public men: damage in anti-German rioting in South Africa is reported from Cape Town to exceed $5,000,000.

May 15--Ambassador Gerard hands the American note to the German Foreign Office; newspapers in England and France praise the note; Dr. Dernburg, who has for months been in the United States as unofficial spokesman for Germany, expresses a desire to go home, this being due, it is understood in Washington, to the criticisms resulting from his defense of the sinking of the Lusitania; German-American newspapers and prominent German-American individuals are going on record as being for the United States as against Germany in event of war.

May 16--New York clergymen from their pulpits praise President Wilson's note to Germany as a powerful instrument for the preservation of peace in this country; the loss of the Lusitania is proving a stimulus to recruiting in Great Britain.

May 17--The American note has not yet been published in Berlin, and most of the newspapers, under confidential orders from the Government, have refrained from comment.

May 18--Statements made by the officers of the British tank steamer Narragansett and of the British steamship Etonian, on arriving at New York and Boston, respectively, show that these ships and a third were prevented from going to the rescue of the Lusitania's passengers by German submarines; a torpedo was fired at the Narragansett.

May 19--Several leading German newspapers join in an attack on the United States, demanding that Germany refuse to yield to the American protest, the text of the note having been made known.

May 30--Full text of the German reply to the American note arrives in Washington and is made public; as to the Cushing and the Gulflight it is declared that the German Government has no intention of attacking neutral vessels by submarine or aircraft, and where it is proved that the attacked ship is not to blame is willing to offer regrets and pay indemnity, it being added that both the cases mentioned are now under investigation, which inquiry can be supplemented by reference to The Hague: as to the Falaba, it is declared that the persons on board were given twenty-three minutes to get off, and it is indicated that the passengers and crew would have had fuller opportunity to leave had the ship not tried to escape and had she not signaled for help by rockets: as to the Lusitania, it is declared she was built as an auxiliary cruiser and so carried on the British navy list, that Germany understands she was armed with cannon, that she carried war material and Canadian troops, while, in addition, the British Admiralty has instructed merchantmen to ram submarines; thus the sinking of the Lusitania was a measure of "justified self-defense"; it is also declared that the Cunard Company is "wantonly guilty" of the deaths, in allowing passengers to embark under the conditions cited; unofficial expressions of opinion from public men at Washington show there is disappointment and dissatisfaction over the note, which is held to be evasive; German Foreign Secretary von Jagow, in an interview given to The Associated Press correspondent in Berlin, declares that the note is not a final one because the German Government considers it essential "to establish a common basis of fact before entering into a discussion of the issues involved."

May 31--American press as a whole finds the German reply unsatisfactory, declaring that it is evasive and fails to meet the issue; London newspapers find the reply to be a "weak evasion"; German-American press as a whole supports the reply; Governors of States and other public men generally agree in condemning the note, but many of them suggest the need for caution; Berlin newspapers hold that the reply is complete.

June 1--President Wilson brings the German note before the Cabinet, which has a long conference.

June 2--A conference is held at the White House between President Wilson and Ambassador von Bernstorff, at the latter's request; Ambassador von Bernstorff arranges to send through the State Department a report to his Government of his talk with the President and of the condition of public opinion in this country; von Bernstorff tells the President that he has been given affidavits that the Lusitania was armed; these affidavits are given to the American Department of State for investigation.

June 3--Ambassador von Bernstorff is arranging to send an emissary, Dr. Anton Meyer-Gerhard, to Berlin to explain the position of the American Government and the state of public opinion; the affidavits that the Lusitania was armed are under official investigation; newspaper investigations throw doubt on their authenticity.

June 5--British Ambassador transmits a note from his Government to the United States Government assuring this country that the Lusitania was unarmed.

June 8--Secretary of State Bryan resigns because he cannot join in the new note to Germany, so he states in a letter to President Wilson, without violating what he deems his duty to the country and without being unfair "to the cause which is nearest my heart, namely, the prevention of war"; President Wilson's letter accepting the resignation expresses "deep regret" and "personal sorrow"; Counselor Robert Lansing is Acting Secretary of State; newspapers generally welcome Mr. Bryan's resignation; the note to Germany is read at a Cabinet meeting and finally decided upon.

June 9--Acting Secretary of State Lansing signs the note to Germany and sends it to Ambassador Gerard; Mr. Bryan's resignation causes interest in England and Germany; Mr. Bryan says that he favors inquiry by an international commission into the points at issue between the United States and Germany, and that Americans should be warned not to travel on belligerent ships; German-American press praises Mr. Bryan.

June 10--President Wilson's answer to the German note is made public at Washington; it "asks for assurances" that Germany will safeguard American lives and American ships; the German Government is assured that it has been misinformed as to the alleged arming of the Lusitania; it is stated that the United States is contending for the rights of humanity, on which principle "the United States must stand"; Mr. Bryan issues a statement to the public, explaining his views; Gustav Stahl, said to be a former German soldier, who made an affidavit that he saw four guns on the Lusitania, is arrested by Federal officers on a charge of perjury.

June 11--The pacific nature of the American note causes satisfaction in Germany; Mr. Bryan issues a statement to German-Americans; Colonel Roosevelt, in a statement, upholds President Wilson.

June 12--Mr. Bryan issues a third statement; some German-American newspapers criticise his statement addressed to German-Americans.

June 13--Newspapers of Germany today contain columns of comment on the last American note, the general tone being milder, the friendly tenor of the note being welcomed.

June 15--Court of inquiry opens in London; Captain Turner swears on the stand that his ship was not armed.

NAVAL RECORD--GENERAL.

May 1--Four British torpedo boat destroyers sink two German torpedo boats in the North Sea, after a fifth British destroyer is sunk by a German submarine; Russian Black Sea fleet bombards Bosporus forts; allied fleet bombards Nagara, on the Dardanelles.

May 3--The ships of the allied fleet are now working in shifts at the bombardment of the Dardanelles, which is maintained twenty-four hours a day; French battleship Henri IV. and British battleship Vengeance are damaged by fire of the forts.

May 4--Bombardment of Turkish forts on the Gulf of Smyrna is resumed by an allied squadron; British warship Agamemnon is damaged by forts at the Dardanelles.

May 6--Heavy bombardment of the Dardanelles is continued by the allied fleet; during the last three days a number of villages and forts have been set on fire by shells; British superdreadnought Queen Elizabeth is taking a prominent part in the bombardment.

May 8--British torpedo boat destroyer Crusader is sunk by a mine off Zeebrugge and the crew taken prisoners by the Germans.

May 9--Russians sink six Turkish transports off the Bosporus and two in the Sea of Marmora.

May 12--Turkish destroyers in the Dardanelles torpedo and sink the British pre-dreadnought Goliath, 500 men being lost; allied fleet bombards the forts at Kilid Bahr, Chanak Kalessi, and Nagara; Italian steamer Astrea sinks near Taranto, it being believed that she hit a mine.

May 15--Russian Black Sea fleet destroys four Turkish steamers and twenty sailing vessels; the fleet bombards Keffen, Eregli, and Kilimali.

May 16--For three days the allied fleet has been bombarding Turkish troop positions on the Dardanelles; shell fire is stated to have smashed whole trenches filled with Turkish soldiers.

May 17--Parliamentary Secretary of the British Admiralty announces in House of Commons that 460,628 tons of British shipping, other than warships, have been sunk or captured by the German Navy since the beginning of the war; that the number of persons killed in connection with the sinkings is 1,556; that the tonnage of German shipping, not warships, sunk or captured by the British Navy is 314,465, no lives being lost, so far as is known.

May 20--Bombardment of Nagara by the allied fleet continues night and day; British battleship Queen Elizabeth is supporting the allied troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula with the fire of her big guns from the Gulf of Saros; a new bombardment of the Turkish encampments on the Gulf of Smyrna is under way by ships of Allies.

May 24--Small naval units of Austria, especially destroyers and torpedo boats, bombard the Italian portions of the Adriatic coast; they are attacked by Italian torpedo boats and withdraw after a brief cannonade; the value of German and Austrian ships now in Italian ports, which have become prizes of war, is estimated at $20,000,000.

May 25--American steamer Nebraskan, en route from Liverpool to Delaware Breakwater, without cargo, is struck by either a torpedo or a mine forty miles off the south coast of Ireland; the ship is not seriously damaged and starts for Liverpool at reduced speed; Italy declares a blockade of the Austrian and Albanian coasts; allied warships bombard Adalia, Makri, Kakava, and other places along the coast of Asia Minor, destroying Government buildings and public works; Austrian ships sink an Italian destroyer near Barletta.

May 27--Captain Greene of the Nebraskan, which arrives at Liverpool, states that he thinks his ship was hit by a torpedo; the American flag had been hauled down shortly before she was struck, but the ship's name and nationality were plainly painted on her sides; British auxiliary ship Princess Irene is blown to pieces off Sheerness, 321 men being killed; it is presumed that careless handling of explosives caused the disaster.

May 28--Austrians sink an Italian torpedo boat destroyer, while the Italians sink an Austrian submarine. Danish steamer Ely is sunk by a mine off Stockholm, crew being saved.

May 29--Statement from the German Foreign Office is transmitted to Washington through Ambassador Gerard, urging that American shipping circles be again warned against traversing the waters around the British Isles incautiously, and especially that they make their neutral markings on the vessels very plain, and that they light them promptly and sufficiently at night: American naval experts find the facts to indicate that the Nebraskan was torpedoed and not struck by a mine, so Ambassador Page reports to Washington; British Admiralty puts stricter rules in force for navigation in the war zone.

May 30--British Legation at Athens issues a notice that, beginning on June 2, a blockade will be established off the coast of Asia Minor between the Dardanelles and the Strait of Samos.

May 31--An Admiralty statement shows that since the beginning of the war 130 British merchant ships and fishing vessels, with a tonnage of 471,000, have been sunk.

June 2--Two Italian torpedo boats sink two Austrian merchant vessels in the Gulf of Trieste and damage an auxiliary cruiser.

June 4--German transports, torpedo boats, and submarines seek to enter the Gulf of Riga, but sheer off on perceiving the Russian fleet; three German transports are sunk by mines.

June 5--A strong German fleet has appeared in the middle Baltic and has exchanged shots with the Russian fleet near the Gulf of Riga; Winston Churchill, in a speech at Dundee, declares that the British Navy is growing at an amazing rate, and is much stronger, both actually and relatively, than at the beginning of the war; Greek steamer Virginia is blown up by a floating mine while heading for the Gulf of Trieste, her crew being killed.

June 6--Italian warships are destroying cables and lighthouses on the Adriatic; Italian warships bombard the railway between Cattaro and Ragusa, and shell Monfalcone.

June 11--Turkish cruiser Midullu sinks a Russian torpedo boat destroyer in the Black Sea.

June 14--British steamship Arndale sinks from striking a mine in the White Sea.

June 15--Official announcement states that the total loss from all causes in the British Navy up to May 31 was 13,547 officers and men.

NAVAL RECORD--SUBMARINES.

May 1--The Gulflight, an American oil steamer owned by the Gulf Refining Company, is torpedoed off the Scilly Islands, but does not sink, and is towed to an anchorage in Crow Sound, Scilly Islands; the Captain dies of heart failure, and two men jump overboard and are drowned; she was flying the American flag; French steamer Europe is torpedoed by a German submarine, crew being rescued; British steamer Fulgent is torpedoed by a German submarine; some of the crew are missing; British steamer Edale is sunk by a German submarine off the Scilly Islands, crew being saved; Russian steamer Svorono is sunk by a German submarine off the Blasket Islands, crew being saved; British trawler Colombia is sunk by a German submarine, seventeen of the crew being lost.

May 3--In the last forty-eight hours one Swedish steamer and three Norwegian steamers have been sunk by German submarines; British steamer Minterne is sunk by a German submarine off the Scilly Islands, two of crew being killed.

May 4--Ten British trawlers have been sunk by German submarines in the last forty-eight hours; the submarine which caused the most damage has an iron cross painted on her conning tower.

May 5--Danish steamer Cathay is sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea; passengers and crew saved.

May 6--British steamers Candidate and Centurion are sunk off the Irish coast by German submarines, crews being saved; British schooner Earl of Latham is sunk by a German submarine; two British trawlers are sunk by German submarines.

May 8--British steamer Queen Wilhelmina is sunk by a German submarine in the North Sea, crew being given time to take to the boats.

May 12--British submarine E-14 has penetrated to the Sea of Marmora and has sunk two Turkish gunboats and five Turkish transports.

May 15--German submarine sinks without warning the Danish steamer Martha in Aberdeen Bay, Scotland; crew escapes.

May 19--German submarines sink British steamers Drumcree and Dumfries and British trawler Lucerne; no lives lost.

May 20--French steam trawler is blown to pieces by German submarine near Dartmouth; thirteen of crew killed; British trawlers Chrysolite and Crimond are sunk by German submarines; crews saved.

May 21--German submarine, with thirty-nine shots from her gun, sinks British sailing ship Glenholm off Irish coast; crew saved.

May 22--German submarine sinks Norwegian steamer Minerva; crew saved.

May 23--Repeated reports keep coming from Copenhagen that the German naval authorities admit the loss of seventeen submarines since the opening of the war.

May 24--An allied submarine sinks Turkish gunboat Pelenk-i-Deria.

May 25--British battleship Triumph is sunk in the Dardanelles by a German submarine, going down in seven minutes; 56 men are lost; the Triumph was built in 1904 and cost $4,750,000.

May 26--A British submarine has sunk a Turkish gunboat in the Sea of Marmora within sight of Constantinople.

May 27--German submarine torpedoes and sinks British battleship Majestic off Sedd-el-Bahr; 49 men are lost; Majestic was completed in 1895 and belonged to the oldest type of battleship in commission in British Navy; British Admiralty announces that submarine E-11 has sunk a large Turkish munition ship, while she caused a small storeship to run ashore; also that E-11 entered Constantinople harbor and discharged a torpedo at a transport alongside the arsenal; British steamer Cadeby is sunk off the Scilly Islands by gunfire from a German submarine; crew saved.

May 28--The torpedoing of the American tanker Gulflight is now established in Germany as having been due to a German submarine, the report of the submarine's Captain having been received by the German Admiralty; he reports that when he saw the Gulflight she was being convoyed by two patrol boats, and he concluded she must be British or was carrying contraband; British steamer Spennymoor is sunk by a German submarine off the Orkney Islands, six men being drowned; British steamer Tullochmoor is shelled and sunk by a German submarine, crew being saved; British steamer Glenlee is sunk by a German submarine, crew being saved; Portuguese steamer Cysne is sunk by a German submarine off Cape Finisterre, crew being saved; German submarine U-24 sinks British steamer Ethiope in the English Channel; fifteen of crew are missing.

May 29--British steamer Dixiana is sunk by a German submarine, which is disguised with sails; crew saved.

May 31--Danish steamer Soborg is sunk by a German submarine in the English Channel; crew saved.

June 1--British steamer Saidieh, carrying passengers, is torpedoed without warning in the North Sea by a German submarine and sinks in fifteen minutes; seven of the crew, including a stewardess, are lost; Welsh trawler Victoria is sunk by a German submarine, several of the crew being killed by shell fire.

June 2--British submarine torpedoes a large German transport in the Sea of Marmora; German submarines sink the Norwegian steamer Cubano and the Welsh trawler Hiorld, the crews being saved; Danish schooner Salvador is sunk by a German submarine, crew saved.

June 3--Swedish steamer Lapland is sunk by a German submarine off Scotland, crew being saved; Danish steamer Cyrus is sunk by a German submarine off Scotland, crew being saved; British steamer Iona is sunk by a German submarine, crew being shelled while taking to the boats and four men being wounded; British fishing steamer Chrysophrasus is sunk by a German submarine, crew being shelled while taking to the boats; Portugal is aroused over recent sinking of two Portuguese ships by German submarines; French steamer Penfeld is sunk by a German submarine, crew saved.

June 4--British trawler Ebenezer is sunk by shell fire from a German submarine, crew escaping; British steamer Inkum is sunk by a German submarine, crew escaping; steam drifter Edna May, trawler Strathbran, sailing ship George and Mary, steam fishing vessels Cortes, Kathleen, and Evening Star, steamer Sunnet Head, trawlers Horace and Economy, all British, have been sunk by German submarines; Russian mine layer is sunk by a submarine near the Gulf of Riga.

June 5--German submarine U-51 arrives at Constantinople from Wilhelmshaven, after a voyage of forty-two days, during which she sunk the British battleships Triumph and Majestic.

June 6--Five more British trawlers have been sunk by German submarines, all the crews being saved.

June 7--The trawler Arctic, bark Sunlight, steamer Star of the West, and the trawler Dromio, all British, have been sunk by German submarines; four of the Arctic's crew were killed by shell fire from the submarine; Russian schooner Afold has been sunk by a German submarine.

June 8--German submarines sink Belgian steamer Menapier, Norwegian steamer Trudvang, Norwegian bark Superb, Norwegian steamer Glittertind, British trawlers Pentland and Saturn; sixteen die on the Menapier.

June 9--British sink a German submarine and capture her crew; First Lord of the Admiralty Balfour states that hereafter submarine crews will be treated like other prisoners of war; German submarine sinks British steamer Lady Salisbury; one of the crew is killed and two are missing; official Austrian statement declares that submarine No. 4 torpedoed and sank a small British cruiser off the Albanian coast; British statement says the ship is now safe in harbor, not seriously damaged.

June 10--British torpedo boats Nos. 10 and 12 are sunk off the east coast of England by a German submarine; twenty-nine seamen are missing; German submarines sink steamers Strathcarron and Erna Boldt, and the trawlers Letty, Tunisian, Castor, Nottingham, Velocity, Cardiff, Qui Vive, and Edward, all British; German submarines sink Russian bark Thomasina, Russian steamer Dania, and Swedish steamer Otago, crews being saved.

June 12--German submarines sink British steamer Leuctra and trawlers James Leyman, Britannia, and Waago, crews being saved.

June 13--German submarine U-35 sinks British bark Crown of India and Norwegian bark Bellglade off Milford Haven, crews escaping; German submarine sinks British trawler Plymouth, crew escaping.

June 14--German submarines sink British steamer Hopemount and French schooner Diamant, crews being saved; German submarine burns the Danish schooner Cocos Merstal, crew being saved.

June 15--German submarine sinks British trawler Argyll, seven of crew being drowned; German submarine sinks Norwegian steamer Duranger; crew saved.

AERIAL RECORD.

May 1--Germans bring down three aeroplanes of the Allies on the western line.

May 2--German aeroplanes bombard towns in Eastern France; twenty incendiary bombs are dropped on Epinal.

May 3--Germans state that they have sunk a British submarine in the North Sea by dropping a bomb on it from an airship; this is denied by the British Admiralty; a German aeroplane is driven off from Dover by gunfire.

May 4--Two Austrian aeroplanes throw incendiary bombs near Mamaligia, in Bessarabia.

May 5--An official French note states that on March 22 French aviators damaged Briey, Conflans, and Metz; that on April 15 French aviators destroyed 150 railroad cars at St. Quentin, twenty-four soldiers being killed; that on April 28 French aviators destroyed a Zeppelin at Friedrichshaven; two Turkish aeroplanes are brought down by shells from the allied fleet at the Dardanelles.

May 7--Three Russian aviators drop bombs on Constantinople.

May 9--British airmen bombard the St. André railway junction near Lille, the canal bridge at Dok, and also Furnes, Herlies, Illies, Marquelles, and La Bassée.

May 10--Zeppelins drop bombs on Westcliffe-on-Sea and Southend, seaside resorts in Essex; slight damage.