The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-02-06
Text of Statement

Text of Statement
 The statement is as follows:
 '"The German ambassador has not received instructions regarding the
 decision of the German admiralty, but. according to the text of the de- cision, the following seems clear:
 There is nothing new in the com munication made on Feb. 4 by the German admiralty with respect to the attitude of the German imperial navy towards ships of the enemy or to- ward neutral commerce. It is ab- surd to declare the proclamation @ paper blockade of the British Isles. As the communication is simply @ statement of what has been, since the beginning of the war. the atti- 1 tude of the navies of all of the be1H-
 gerent powers toward ships of the enemy.
 admiralty proclaimed the closing of the North Sea, the waters of which
 are essentially neutral. Germany does not profess to close even the English Channel to neutral commerce and she does not intend to nolest or seize American vessels laden with
 food stuffs for the civilian popuIa- l ton of enemy countries. It is hoped
 that England will not make necessary a reconsideration of this attitude by
 seizfng American ships nket the Will he1mina.
 !
 sfGermany does. however, annoance to the world that proposes to con
 tinue to destroy ships belonging to
 the enemy and it adds the notification to neutral powers that, on account of the facts that their ships are em- p1oying neutral flags, according to secret instructions now taken to have been issued by the British govern ment, bona fide neutral vessels may
 actually be endangered.
 l Although, according to well un- 1 derstood and universally accepted us- ages of warfare, naval vessels are perfectly justified in destroying mer-
 chantmen of the enemy, the German government now sees fit to issue sim ply general reminder to that ef- feet, stating the actual radius of op-
 erations of the German, submarines.
 t'The warning may also be taken l as in the nature of an answer to the
 offer of a prize of 500 pounds, made 1 in England for the first British naer- | chant ship that should succeed in
 ramming and sinking a German sub
 marine, an offer calculated to revive the 1ong-abandoned practice of prt- l watering"
 MT. Gerard Replies
 The official text of the German ad- l nairalty proclamation, transmitted by l Ambassador Gerard to the state de- l partment today, reveals that naviga- | tion routes to the north of Shetland Islands and the eastern part of the
 North Sea as well as a, strip of thirty nautical miles along the Dutch coast, are not in the danger zone but that l the waters directly around Great Brf- tain and Ireland comprise the proh- bited areas This differs from the published report.
 Tn other respects the proclamation iconforms in sense to the report of 1t lsent to the United States by wireless, although the phraseology differs lslight1y.
 State department officials indicated Il that the proclamation as received from Ambassador Gerard would be
 issued later today. The German fore ign office has accompanied the pro
 cIamation with a long explanatory
 memorandum which Ambassador Gerard reported he would send sub lsequent1y.
 Enemy's Ships Under Ban. The proclamation itself, however, according to the official text, makes it clear that "al1 enemy ships'' found in the zone of operations as the areas are described, will be destroyed ) and points out that contingencies may arise which may make it impossible always to save passengers and crew. As for neutral vessels venturing in Ito the war zone the proclamation point sout the dangers to which they Fl ''Tnay be exposed'' in view of the mis- use of neutral flags by enemy ships and declares that efforts to strike at belligerent vessels might in some cases l unintentionally strike neutral vessels. Officials here are awaiting the Ger
 man foreign office memorandum be-
 for taking any further steps as they
 believe that may explain the points on
 which there is now some doubt. If
 the areas prescribed by the procIama- tion are defined within the terri torfaI waters of Great Britain and Ire
 land different situation may arise.
 United States May Protest. = Unless the German memoranda um explains the provisions which German
 naval commanders will take to ascer- tain whether ship flying a neutra flag is really a neutral vessel; it is f most probable that an expression from the United States government vii 3 follow pointing out that the destruc g ton of neutral vessels carrying non. l contraband cargoes or the injury tC ] their passengers would not meet witf 3 the acquiesence of this government
 Under the rules issued to America1