New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-07-01
Washington Officials
Anxious to Get
Full Facts.
FEAR NEW STRAIN
WITH GERMANY
Repeated Attempts to Get
Away Would Justify
the Act.
SOME SHOTS FIRED
SOME SHOTS FIRED
Armenian Carried Contraband-
May Have Been Under Char
ter by British Government.
lFrom The Tribune Bureaul

Washington, June 30.-Twenty-
two Americans are reported missing
as the result of the torpedoing Of
the Leyland Line steamship Armen-
ian, which was sunk off the coast of
Cornwall on Monday by the Ger
man submarine U-38. Fifteen of
the Americans were negro mule
teers. 1t is stated that one white
man, DR.. J. S. Viso, Of Porto Rico,
and three negroes were picked up by
the submarine.
The Armenian cleared from New
port News on June II with a cargo
Of mules, supposed TO be for the
British government.
The following statement given out
by the State Department is the sub
stance of dispatches received from
Consul Armstrong, at Bristol:
Department has received cable
grams from the American Consul
al Bristol, England, reporting that
the Leyland Line steamship Ar
menian, from Newport News, was
torpedoed and sunk at p. m., June
rs, twenty miles west by north of
Trevose Head, Cornwall, by Ger
man submarine U-38; that the Mar
conf house was struck by a shot, and
that twenty-nine men were lost and
ter injured. The following Ameri-
can horse attendants are missing:
"E. Williamson, address unknown;
J. NJ. Monroe, New Orleans; B. NJ.
Cranberry, Ais Washington Street,
Montgomery, Ala; S. R. Sutton,
CarteryDe, Va; Harry Stone, New
York Gity; Cattle Carpenter Brown,
Harr ,sburg, Penn; DR.. J. S. Viso.
Porto Rican; r. II. Brooks or West,
chief foreman, naturalized American,
London, and the following negroes:
julius, Henry, King and William,
Virginia; J. Smith, Portsmouth;
Wall, Foley and Little, Newport
News; Leroy, Jackson and John
Speed, Richmond; King, Small,
Rickert and Cakes, Norfolk.
1T il reported to the consul that
DR.. Viso and three Of the negroes
were picked up by a submarine.
Other survivors were picked up by
the Belgian trawler Professor Ste
vens, and transferred to two de-
stroyers at noon yesterday, and
brought into Bristol last night"
Washington Officials Worried.
Officials Of the State Department
are worried over this attack, and,
further details Of the sinking are
eagerly awaited. The meagre re-
ports sent by Consul Armstrong give
no adequate basis upon which TO
Judge the extent 10 which the Ger
man government can be held ac-
countable for the deaths Of the
American citizens.
Coming at this time, when the
Lusitania case is still keeping the
two governments at arms length, it
is feared that should it prove that
the Armenian was what she ap-
peared, an ordinary merchantmen,
not a transport Of the British
government, It will be extremely
difficult for the United States to
continue relying on ordinary diplo-
matte methods. Officials are in
clined TO believe that Berlin has
made a blunder in permitting fur
ther complications in the already
strained relations. The State De-
partment has asked that more de-
tails be sent as quickly as possible.
Consul Armstrong; statement
that the wireless apparatus of the
vessel was destroyed by shot from
the submarine is interpreted TO mean
that the Armenian was trying TO
summon aid and possibly 70 escape.
This is borne out by the fact that
the vessel was only twenty miles
from shore when attacked, and, be-
ing Of fair speed, might reasonably
expect to escape.
The second Lusitsnia note defines
the attitude Of the American govern
ment In such cases. The present case
is believed to be parallel to that az