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Updated: June 23, 2025
For eleven days after the attack of the Sussex the Berlin Foreign Office preserved an attitude of ignorance regarding the torpedoing; but the seriousness with which the case was viewed in the United States, coupled with the instructions from Washington to Ambassador Gerard, at length caused the Foreign Office to call upon the admiralty for a report on the destruction of the Sussex if any submarine commander could throw any light upon it.
There was little danger for Henry and me on the good ship Espagne with Red Cross stenographers and nurses and ambulance drivers and Y. M. C. A. workers. No particular advantage would come to the German arms by torpedoing us.
It is always repugnant to be obliged to treat them like men.... But according to what they tell me, this individual with her spy-information brought about the torpedoing of sixteen vessels.... Ah, the wicked beast!..." And he said no more, changing the subject. Every one evinced the same revulsion on recalling the spy.
The Government knows that the public favours ruthless torpedoing of all ships bound for the enemy, so the Government is safe in concluding that the public can be stimulated for some months more by reports of submarine victory. Military operations in the West are probably not arousing the discussion in Berlin that the plans against Russia are.
As an outrage against international morality it was only exceeded by the torpedoing on 6 June of a Dutch vessel on which British delegates were to have gone to The Hague to discuss with Germans the mutual amelioration of the lot of prisoners of war. Side by side with this brutality at sea there developed a similar offensive in the air.
The boats were lowered, and on drawing near we perceived the captain with others on the bridge holding up their hands as a token of surrender. As soon as those on board had taken their places in the lifeboats they rowed towards us and showed the liveliest interest in the final torpedoing of their steamer.
But all these negotiations, reproaches and recriminations were put an end to by the torpedoing of the Lusitania, with the killing of American women and civilians who were passengers on that vessel. I believed myself that we would immediately break diplomatic relations, and prepared to leave Germany.
If Germany thought otherwise, she is perfectly capable of sending a dozen submarines over to our naval manoeuvres and torpedoing our battleships right and left." Michael laughed outright at this. "While a fleet of Zeppelins hovers over London, and drops bombs on the War Office and the Admiralty," he suggested. But Aunt Barbara was not in the least diverted by this.
If you read the definite instructions, the exact orders each submarine commander has you would understand that the torpedoing of the Sussex was impossible. Many of our submarines have returned from rounding up British vessels. They sighted scores of passenger ships going between England and America but not one of these was touched.
Also, the torpedoing of hospital ships by the Germans, and the firing on passengers seeking to escape, and so on. These accounts are flatly contradicted by the Germans, who, on their part, have terrible tales to tell of English brutality, as instanced by the Baralong episode.
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