The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1917-09-23

ton of documents of this kind
Point. the Englishman. the Manches-
ter Engineer and the Sussex one
American was killed or drowned on
the Englishman. but the Issue finally
came to "A head over the torpedoing
Of the channel passenger boat Sussex.
which carried passengers between
t'ol{est0ne and Dieppe. France
The Sussex was torpedoed on March
"a near the coast OF France Four
hundred and thirtv-six persons. of
whom "eVenty-fve were Americans.
were on board The captain and a
number of the passengers saw the
torpedo and an endeavor was made TO
a void It After the boat was struck
the many passengers took to the
boats, Three Americans were in1ur-
e1 and more than forty persons lost
| Their lives although the boat '<as NOT
sunk. hut was towed 70 Eoulogne
was instructed To inquire from
the German government as to wheth-
err a German submarine had sunk
the SUSSEX. At my repeated request.
the Foreign Office called on the Ad-
miralty for = report Of the torpedoing
of tho Sussex and finally. on the
tenth of April. the German note was
delivered to me. IN the meantime.
and before the delivery Of this noe,
I had been assured again and again
that the Sussex had not been torpedo
Cd by "A German submarine.
In this note a rough sketch was
inclosed. said to have been made by
the officer cnnmanding the sub
marine. Of a vessel which he admit
ted he had torpedoed, in the same
locality where the Sussex had been
attacked and at about the same time
Of day
II was said that this boat which
was torpedoed was mine layer OF
tho recently built Arabic class and
that a great explosion which was
( deserved to occur in the torepdoed
warranted the certain conclusion
greet amOu~ts Of munitions were
"u board and the note concluded
THE G ernan Government must there
fore assume that injudv to the SUSSEX
was attributable to another cause thar
attack by German suh-~arine"
The note contained an. O,,oF toosuh,
'falt any tlifrerenee 81 oi1j1ion az
should ,deyrlop to be investigated bl
a mixed commission in accordance
with Tho Hague convention of 1907
The Englishman and the Eagle Point
II was said. were attacked by Ger
man submarines only after they hat
attempted to escann, and an explana
ton was given as tn the Manchestet
Engineer with reference to tn,
SUSSEX. the note continued.
Should the American govern
ment have At its disposal other
material at the concluNion of
the case of the Sussex the Ger
i man Government would ask
that II be communicated in order
to sub iect this material also to
investigations
! In the meantime American nava
officers, etc. had been engaged in
. collecting facts as to the sinkingg OF
| the Sussex This evidence. which
seemed overwhelming. and, in con-
nection with tho admissions in the
+ German note, absolutely conclusive
! was incorporated I'm the note sent To
Germany in which Germany was no
tined:
Unless the Tmreriai Govern
ment should now Immediately de-
clare and effect abandonment of
!, this present method of sub
marine warfare against pas
+ seNger and freight carrying ves-
soils. the government OF the Uni
ted states can have no choice
/ hut To sever diplomatic relations
! with the German empire alto
! eether
| The issue was now clearly defined
I ] have already spoken of the fact
I that for long time there had been
growing up two parties In Germany
one party headed by Won Tirpitz. in
favor OF what the Germans called
/ 'Tucksic htloser" or ruthless subma
rtne war. in which all enemy mer-
chant ships We're to he sunk without
warning, and the party Their headed
by the chancellor. which desired to
avoid a conflict with America on this
issue
Won TIRPITZ. SPARTAN
CREATOR or NEW NAVY
As | have explained in another
chapter, the military have always
claimed to take a hand in shaping
the destinies and foreign policies of
Germany When the Germans began.
to turn their attention to the creation
of fleet Won Tirpitz was the man
who In a sense became the leader of
the movement and, therefore the Gre
ator OF the modern navy of Germany
A skilltul politician, he for wears dom
mated the reichstag. and on the ques-
ton of submarine warfare was most
efficiently seconded by the efforts of
the Navy league, an organization hav-
ing perhaps 1000 900 members
throughout Germany. Although only
one of the three heads of the navy
The was secretary of the navy). by
the force of his personality, by the
political position which he had Gre
ated for himself and by the hacking
of his friends in the Navy league. he
really dominated the other two de-
partments OF the navy. the marine
staff and the marine cabinet
Like most Germans of the ruling
class, ambition is his only passion
These Spartans do not care either
for money or for the luxury which
# brings. Their lives are on very
simple lines, both in the army and
navy IN er3er that tire officers shall
not vie with one another in expendi-
ture and in order that the poorer Of
ficeTs and their wives shall not be
subject to the humiliation which
would be caused II they had to live
In contact with brother officeru ltvinr