Evening star., 1916-01-01

incorrect that only brief period was
given for getting the people into the
boats.
"On the contrary an unusually long
period was granted to the Ancona Tor
getting the passengers in the boats.
Finally. it is incorrect that num-
ber of shells were still fired at the
steamer after it had stopped.
further that the commander of the sub
marine granted the steamer a full
forty-fve minutes time-that is. more
| than an adequate periodic give the
to the boats. Then, since the people
| were not all saved, he carried out the
| itorpedoing in such manner that the
! ship could remain above the water the
the purpose of making possible the
abandonment of the vessel on boats
still in hand.
| Commander Exceeded Instructions.
! Since the ship remained a further
five minutes above water, he would
have accomplished his purpose if the
crew of the Ancona had not abandoned
the passengers in a manner contrary
to duty.
with full consideration, however. of
this conduct of the commander, aimed
at accomplishing the rescue of the
royal marine authorities reached the
conclusion that he had omitted to take
adequately into consideration the panic
that had broken out among the passen-
gers, which rendered difficult the TAX
ing to the boats, and the spirit of the
Regulation that imperial and royal ma
rine officers shall fail in giving help to
nobody in need, not even to an enemy
Therefore the officer was punished
in accordance with the existing rules
for exceeding his instructions.
THE imperial and royal government,
in the face of this state OF analrs,
does not hesitate to draw the corre-
spending conclusions respecting the IN
demniflcat ton of American citizens af-
fected by the sinking of the prize, put
in this regard it makes the following
statement:
Willing to Pay Indemnity.
"The investigation into the sinking of
the Ancona could naturally furnish no
essential point to show in how far a
right to an indemnity is to be granted
American citizens. The imperial Rnd
royal government cannot, indeed, even
according to the view of the Washing
ton cabinet, be held liable for damages
which resulted from the undoubtedly
justified bombardment OF the hee1ng
ship.
'it should just as little have to an
swer for the damages which came to
pass before the torpedoing of the ship,
through the faulty lowering of life
boats or the capsiZing of lowered boats.
The imperial and royal government
must assume that the Washington gov
ernment is in position and disposed
to give it (the Austro- Hungarian gov
ernment) the required and certainly
not unimportant information in this re-
spect.
"If however, because of possible lack
of material proofs, the particular cir
cumstances under which American clti-
zens suffered damage should not nave
become known to the Union govern
ment, the royal government IN conslo-
Grafton for the humanely deeply re-
grettable incident and by desire to
proclaim once again its friendly feel
ings toward the federal government.
would be gladly w@lling to disregard
this gap in the evidence and to extend
indemnities also to those damaged
whose cause cannot be established.
May Discuss Law Further.
ernment may probably consider the af-
fair of the Ancona settled with the
foregoing statements, it reserves to it.
self at this time the right to bring up
for discussion at later period the
difficult questions of international law
connected with submarine warfare.
The undersigned has the honor to
request most respectfully that his ex
cellency the ambassador of the United
States Of America will be pleased to
bring the foregoing to the attention of
the federal government. and takes ad-
vantage of this opportunity to reDew
to his excellency an expression of his
most especial esteem. BURIAN."