Arizona republican., 1916-02-11

. the grand jury charging q conspira ~ [" interfere with and destroy com meree. under the sherman antitrust { act These indictments it was re- ported today. were not ready because. the clerical force had been unable to transcribe them. They probably here today that it was extremely dou5lful that the Austrian and German governments would have issued the uo:o tp ueUtrol governments had it not heen for the American memorandum. 1 Officials were much interested in dis patches from Berlin which quoted pr Alfred Zimmerman. under secretary of foreign affairs. as saving the German government considered its note to be in harmony with the views of the i United States.
 While officials of the state depart meilt declined to discuss the notified tions received il was admitted in vari- olN quarters that the question probab- ly would receive little opposition from the state department
 II was considered that the immedia- . ate effect of the notification would cause the department to announce more quickly than had been thought ad isahle its intention to abandon the "id ruling made before German CrUis- CTS were driven from the seas, which permitted merchant ships to carry
 arms for defensive purposes.
 The department is known to have. hoped to 'secure an agreement from all of the entente allies t0 disarm their ! merchant ships and then to secure d ple' ge from the central powers to re-
 frtil absolutely from attacking such
 unarmcd ships without warning These GUndert2kings il was believed. would he
 rrystallized into new principle of in
 tcrn9tiCnal law.
 Secretary Lansing said today that
 none Of the allies had replied to his
 note Other officials suggested that
 the announced intentions of the Ger
 rian and Austrian governments would
 force the hands of their enemies.
 In the embassies of the allies here i, was freely stated that although word had not been received from their gov
 ernment not the slightest doubt pre-
 vailed that the suggestions of the Unit
 cd states would be repected
 The view of the diplomats seemed It
 Joe that as many submarines surely
 would sink their merchantmen regard
 less of whether they resisted or not
 shipmastors would prefer to take theii
 chances at saving their vessels by ltigh;ing if they were unable to escape
 capture by flight
 l Confronted with the virtual threa
 of the United States to classify arme, merchant ships as War vessels, an,
 therefore not entitled to enter Ameri 4 can waters more than once in every si, , months, or to remain more than , ; hours it Was said at one of the cn bassies here that if the United State , in face of desperate need of ships l. I carry it's products abroad, could affor, , to exclude from it's ports allied mer Y chantmen, the governments ownin
 lthem could afford to send in onl, T enogsh unarmed ships to take ou 7 goods consigned to themselves. Ther e seemed reason to believe that the vie, I obtained at that embassy fairly re f ilected at this time the position If otb p or allied gorernments.
 s State department officials have bee 1, expecting notification of the intention & of Germany and Austria to regar , armed merchantmen as war vessel b ever since armed Italian ships bega { arriving at New York There were in ! dications then that the Austro- Hun -aIian embassy had received notice
 what has now followed It was as
 sumed hy officials here that whateye
 action Austria would take would I joined by Germany
 ,N II was not known whether the te, -, ot the communications from Perln an ;" Vienna would be transmitted throug @ the embassies here or through Il
 American embassies abroad, It wa considered probable however, thf ~ they would come through the latte '0 channel.