New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-05-10
FLEET OFFICERS
BLAME BRITAIN
AND GERMANY
Condemn Sinking Of Liner
and Failure to Keep
Her Course Guarded.
PRIVATELY BREAK
NEUTRALITY ORDERS
Fate Of Lusitania One Big Topic
in WardrOOm and FOreCaStlc
on Fletcher's Ships.

Il is written in the regulations Of
the navy that officers shall not discuss
Questions OF national oiicy. It is also
written, by order Of .hc President,
that officers shall be strictly neutral
in speech and act: Botn regulations
we're smashed INTO moro bits than n
ehrapnel shell breaks into wherever
oIicc-s Of the feet or shoro leave me-
yesterday.
/ The two meeting place most favored
by officers ashore arc the Aston, who-o
Daiquiri cocktails arc famous vhor-
ever sailor men gather, and the New
York Yacht Club, where they arc al
ways welcome. Both held many last
night and the subject OF discussion
was the Lus.ania.
Employees at tho Aston and the
yacht club heard enough opinions ex-
pressed to keep a dozen naval court
martials busy for a month and break
"a dozen officers. Between and among
friends thcre men DO not hesitate to
be most unneutral. Il dcHouncing the
sinking Of tho big ship e murder or
worse is unncu'ral. Criticism of the
British Admiralty for failing to pro-
vide an escort OF torpedo boats or
destroyers once the liner approached
the danger zone nigh; also be con-
sidercd breach OF regulations.
Speed Peer Defence.
These men, among them some Of
those who have done much 20 bring
the submarine up to its present state
of efficiency, were Of opinion iEat the
! English Numbered in figuring ,hat the
/ speed of the Lusitania would enable
her TO escape the undcrsea boats.
/ She might, they pointed out, escape
/ one, as she had before. but if they
we're hunting in multipes speed might
! be of little avail. Il would not sur
7 prise some of these men to hear when
the full story comes out that this is
what happened
at would be exactly like a deer and
q pack of dogs" one explained. THE
deer might easily get away from one
dog, only TO fall to its mate
The Lusitania tragedy has not served
to make Germany better loved in the
navy than before. The older men in
the service, whose commissions date
to the Spanish war or earlier. remem-
Der that Dewey had friction with Adj
miral Won Diederichs in Manila Bay.
and, as the story goes. offered to give
the German any sort of entertainment
he might wish. That incident created
feeling that has not downed.
These men say the late Admiral
Coghlan. one Of Dewey's captains, who
set the nation laughing by his recital
of "Hoch der Kaiser" at a public din
ner in this city. and was formally rep
rimandpd therefor, only voiced the sem
timent of the cabin and wardroom.
The younger men say this feeling pre-
walls to-day.
Dislike German Officers.
Frankly, the younger men do not like
the German officer. They do like the
I Englishman. ard the Frenchman and
the Russian they declare to be delight
full. The German they declared to have
too much side"-a rather polite way
of saying "swelled heads" They con
fessedly are not fond of "kultur" as ex-
emplified by German officers before the
war and since.
/ theoretically, naval officers have lit
tie intercourse with their men. As a
matter of fact, they know the senti-
ments of the enlisted force as well as
their warrant officers do. They say the
sentiment of the sailors is that Of the
wardroom.
3 "Only to-day heard a bluejacket
laying down the law TO one of his
friends" said an officer. This is n
white mans world he declared. and
the Allies have Just got TO win
/ 81 don't exactly subscribe to his doc
/ trine that the Germans arc not white.
but | can appreciate his belief that
/ such acts as the attack upon the Lust
tania and the murder Of women and
children are acts worthy OF African
savages rather than of members of the
superior race"