New-York tribune., 1914-09-25
CRUELTY CHARGES
DENIED BY BRITISH
Admiralty .Resents State
ment of Firing on Drown
ing German Sailors.

London, Sept. "a The British Ad
miralty has issued a formal reply Ia
the statement of the German Minister
at Copenhagen that British officers fired
on drowning German sailors after the
naval engagement of Hcligoland, and
that British shell was thrown into a
lifeboat containing German survivors
of this fight.
The Admiralty admits the charge that
the she'll was thrown, but explains the
circumstances as follows:
every effort was made to save life
until a German cruiser Of the Stettln
class appeared on the scene and opened
n heavy ire on the British dcstroyers
and their small boats The destroyers
were forced TO retire i'm order to avoid
destruction. The Goshawk removed her
men from her boat, leaving it to Ger
man prisoners. nearly all Of whom were
wounded. II is to be regretted that a
hluejacket on the forecastle Of the
GOshawk. cXasperated at the inhuman
conduct Of the German cruiser, threw
projectlc which could not possibly
under the circumstances have exploded
into this small boat as it drifted past
his ship.
"This. no doubt. is the incident re-
ferred to by the German Minister at
Copenhagen. IL cannot be defended
hut the act was done under consider
able provOcatiOu, and il was surely a
trivial offence compared to that OF the
German cruiser which fred many shells
at the boats Of British destroyers while
they wer" engaged IN humane ana
ChiyalrOus action.
Dealing with the rescue by the Brit.
ish submarine Ell of the occupants Of
two boats which the destroyer de-
fender had been obliged to abandon un'
Ger heavy ire, the Admiralty says:
After covering the retreat OF INC
DESTROYER the submarine returned TO
the boats and removed the British ON
GERS and men and three Germans. The
submarine might well have taken an
other German officer and six Unwoun!'
cd men prisoners. but AS the two boa.5
contained eighteen very badly wounded
Germans, he humanely left the Ger
man officer and the six men who were
not hurt to care for them and navigate
the boats. Ecforc leaving the subr'a-
rine saw that these boats were pro
vlded with water and biscuits am a
compass. and ii gave the German OF
GERS their position and the course to
EeligoE.ud. The officers and meh OF
the dcstroyt: Defender stripped them
selves cf everything but their trou 'crs'
tearing up their clothes 10 serve as
bandagcs for the wounded Germans
Regarding the allegations that ter
mans fired at German sailors who were
i'm the water. the Admiralty says tn re
are many British naval officers and
men who actually saw officers Of the
German cruisers Mainz and kocnlgcn
Luise fire at their own men n the
water, presumably because they we're
of the opinion that they were prema-
turcly desertiTe their posts.
"Thpre are many men In our hoSpi'
tails" the Admiralty continues, whose
wounds testify to the accuracy Of the
German officers fire Out Of $50 men
saved from the Mainz, about l5O were
picked up swimming in the water
Many Of them had been wounded by
revolver bullets. The remaining 2OI
could not be induced to jump overheard
They were taken off by a DESTROYER
which lay alongside just before the
Mainz went down.