The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-01-01
President Wilson Begins Imme-
diate Quest for Facts.
BLAME DIRECTED TO AUSTRIA
Washington Official Circles Are
Shocked by New Tragedy.
American Diplomat May Be
Among Those Lost on Ship.

Washington, Jan. IA new and
most serious submarine controversy
today confronted the United States i'll
the torpedoing of the Peninsular &
Oriental liner Persia in the Mediter-
ranean.
Hot on the heels of the virtual set
tlement of the Ancona case with Aus
tria, the summarizing of the Persia,
with American Consul McNeely, of
Alden, on board en- route to his post,
renewed tension.
The state department received re-
ports from American Consul Skinner
at London regarding the sinking of
the Persia and that Consul McNeely
was passenger and other Americans
were believed to be aboard Skinner
said most of the passengers were lost.
McNeely'S fate was in doubt. If the
American diplomat met death, the at
tack upon the Persia promises to
make one of the most acute and ser
ious issues which this government has
yet met.
President Interested.
President Wilson and Secretary of
State Lansing gave the Persia disa Ster
their personal attention The presi-
dent was prOmpaly sent every scrap
of information received at the state
department.
While officials were openly amazed
at the attack upon the Persia, par
ticularly so soon after the transmits
sion of Austria's reply on the Ancona
they were disposed to withhold judg-
ment and comment until the facts are
more fully ascertained. They espe-
cially were interested in whether the
Persia was warned and her passen-
gers given opportunity to reach safety
Shock over the Persia's sinking was
aggravated by the short lapse of time
Cfau n A fs-V~
try was delivered. This was handed
to Ambassador Penfield at Vienna on
Wednesday, and Within "a hours of
the attack on the Persia.
From such incomplete information
as was at hand today it was generally
presumed in officials circles that, as
was the case in the crisis with Ger
many, the Austrian admiralty and the
Vienna foreign office are working at
cross purposes.
Admiralty Not in Line.
1t was regarded as a strong possi-
bility that while the foreign office is
ready to accede to the contentious of
the United States, the adnniraItv, bent
on the success of it's submarine policy
has not yet been brought into line
There is, however, the added possf-
b1llty that the submarine which sI1nL
the Persia, being far from home, has
not been instructed in the new policy
of the Austrian government The de-
struction of the Persia, coupled with
the recent sinking of the Japanese
liner Yasaka Maru and the French
liner Vile de La Ciotat, lends strength
in official quarters to both those pos
sibilities.
Severance of diplomatic relations.
with all its posi- bilities, looms up as
one of the eventualities the same as
it did in the case of the Lusitania, the
Arabic and the Ancona Although the
nationality of the submarine which
sunk the Persia remains unestablish-
ed, the assumption generally is that it
was an Austrian boat, because Count
Won Bernstorff, the German ambassa-
dor, recently declared that no Ger
man or Turkish submersibIe was on
Grating in the Mediterranean.