“The Imperial government, while withholding its final decision on the demands advanced in connection with the sinking of the Lusitania until receipt of an answer from the American government, feels impelled in conclusion to recall here and now that it took cognizance with satisfaction of the mediatory proposals submitted by the United States government to Berlin and London as a basis for a modus vivendi for conducting the maritime warfare between Germany and Great Britain.
“The Imperial government by its readiness to enter upon a discussion of these proposals, then demonstrated its good intentions in ample fashion. The realization of these proposals was defeated, as is well known, by the declinatory attitude of the British government.
“The undersigned takes occasion, etc.
“Jagow.”
AMERICAN OPINION OF GERMAN EXCUSES
The effect of the German note on American opinion was to create a sense of angry disappointment. The newspapers were a unit in calling it evasive. It “does not meet the issue,” declared the New York World, while the New York Times viewed it as being “not responsive to our demand. It tends rather to becloud understanding.” The Albany Knickerbocker Press denounced it as “an answer which purposely does not answer. Germany evidently is playing for time.” This thought was reiterated by the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times, which pointed out that “it is palpable that Germany proposes to consume time by raising points which call for further correspondence, in the meanwhile continuing in the course to which the United States has objected.”
Survivors of the Lusitania Disaster.
Mr. Cowper, a Canadian journalist, holding little Helen Smith, a six-year-old American girl, who lost both father and mother. (C. Int. News Service.)
“The Man Who Cannot Be Drowned.” This stoker was saved from the Titanic, the Empress of Ireland and, lastly, from the Lusitania.