New-York tribune., 1918-05-19
RISES AND WOUNDED AS TARGETS FOR HUN TORPEDOES|
Every Ship Sunk Is
Only So Much Loss
Tonnage to Trans
port Supplies to AL
lies, the Germans
Believe

for civil life, At the NJ wosnded asa az oeres leasI
up their thanks again. the only wav
they knew, with long. luivering
cheer. Are you downhearted? ?"
called an orderly. With a long.
rumbllng roar of "No!" they dis
appeared into the night and-Eng-
land
Nice chap, Fritz" said a de-
stroyer officer, as he turned away.
And those whom the French fish
ing smacks rescued and brought to
France were just as CHEEKY, as a
7. M. c. A. secretary to whose hut
they were brought has testified:
We got down to the hut this
morning to find that part of the
crew and some of the wounded SOL
diers rescued from the Lanfranc had
been brought into dock. They were
sent IN to us to wait for ambulances.
Many Of the men were only half
dressed and all were cold and hun
cry. We made great horseshoe of
our tables round the stove and got
them all hot breakfast. Three of
them were SO badly wounded that
they had to be laid on the tables. Ii
was awful to see men with their
bandages torn off their wounded
limbs. Some of the crew seemed all
right, but after a while the shock be-
gan to tell. Yet they were all so
nice and so brave, for some were in
great pain. One of those rescued
had neither arms nor legs"
Yes, it's mice chap, Fritz" as the
destroyer officer across the Channel
had said. Nice chap to lessen the
tonnage of his enemies by resorting
to the condemning of helpless men
as we'll as nursing sisters. to the
mercy of an angry sea. Nice chap
to justify himself by saying the ship
must have been carrying troops and
munitions, for German submarines
never make mistakes. And "nice
chap, Fritz" is going to treat Amer
lean wounded as he's treacherously
treated his wounded enemies on the
battlefield, by gouging their eyes
out and mutilating their persons, or
drowning them on hospital ships like
rats in a cage. He's already paved
the way by his May announcement
asserting American aviators cross
to France on hospital ships, whom
America has had no such ships.
Sunk Despite
Spanish Officer
And here on the 26th of Febru-
airy he sank the Glenart Castle.
-
she carried troops, but they lay in
white cots within the Glenart Cas-
ties white sides. Yes, nice chap,
Fritz, for he'd agreed to respect
hospital ships if they carried
Spanish officer to guarantee their
Red Cross mission. The Glenart
had her, Spaniard and he too was
nearly. drowned in the catastrophe.
Ore pleasing thing about the trag-
edy was that 1T gave an American
destroyer, at the risk of being her
self torpedoed, chance to do res
cue work which makes the blood run
faster in ones veins. The sea was
vile and the destroyer couldn't
launch boat. Yet as she passed
men clnging to wreckage-men too
weak to catch the life-lines thrown
to them-American seamen jumped
overheard into the icy water, swan
to the poor devils and held them up
TIL they could be rescued. Mr.. Dan
lels, I'm glad to say, has tittingly
rewarded such gallantry.
And shortly after the Glenart
Castle the big Llandovey Castle, on
mercy bent, was torpedoed. She also
carried a Spanish officer. I have
letter from an officer on the hos.
pital ship Araguaya, which has beer
transferred from passenger and food
service to the work of mercy to re-
place lost hospital ships, and he
tells me his ship is most particular
about living up to the Geneva con-
ventlon. No nurses are carried ex-
cept those who make the round trip
between England and Canada. For
IT Canadian nurses worked their
passage home Germany might say
they were troops.
The verdict passed on these Ger
man outrages is expressed in a note
which the International Red Cross
Committee at Geneva sent to the
German government:
The International Committee
whose right and duty it is to enforce
respect for the principles of the Red
Cross and the Geneva convention
by reporting violations of then,
draws the very serious attention OF
the German government to the re-
sponsibility which it would assume
toward the civilized world by per
sisting in resolution which is in
contradiction to the humanitarian
conventions which it has pledged it,
self solemnly to respect.
I'm torpedoing hospital ships it Is
not attacking combatants but de-
fenceless beings, wounded or mutt
lated In war, and women who are
devoting themselves to the work of
relief and charity. Every hospital
ship is provided with the external
signs prescribed by international
conventions, the use of which has
been regularly notified to belliger-
ents and should be respected by be.
ligerents. The latter may, accord
ing to The Hague convention, exer-
else the right of search, but have in
no case any right to sink ship and
expose to death the hospital staff
and the wounded.
"The Asturias appears to have