SIR ROBERT BORDEN, K.C.M.G.—Prime Minister of Canada
H.R.H. FIELD MARSHAL THE DUKE OF CONNAUGHT—
Uncle of George V. and Governor General of Canada—
(Photo from P.S. Rogers.)
"The Lusitania had 1,250 steel shrapnel cases, but they were empty. There was no explosive of any sort aboard. As to the report that the Lusitania had guns aboard, I cannot assert too strongly that it is positively untrue. There were no guns whatever aboard. The Lusitania was an unarmed passenger steamer. Furthermore she never has been armed, and never carried an unmounted gun or rifle out of port in times of war or peace."
"Then you unqualifiedly declare that the Lusitania was not armed against submarines?" he was asked.
"The ship," Mr Winter replied, "was as defenseless against undersea and underhanded attack as a Hoboken ferryboat in the North River would be against one of the United States battleships."
Captain D.J. Roberts, Marine Superintendent of the Cunard Line, said yesterday that he was prepared to testify under oath in any court and from his personal knowledge that the Lusitania did not carry any guns when she sailed from New York at 12:28 P.M. on May 1 for Liverpool.
"It is my invariable custom to go through the passenger ships every day they are in port," he said, "and I made my last inspection of the Lusitania on sailing day at 7 A.M. There were no guns or plates or mountings where guns could be fitted on the Lusitania, nor have there been since she has been in the service. The ship has never carried troops or been chartered by the British Government for any purpose whatsoever.
"In order that there should be no mistake about the ensigns flown by British merchant vessels, the Admiralty ordered after war had been declared that only the red ensign, a square red flag with the union jack in the corner, should be shown at the stern of a merchantman, and the white St. George's ensign by all war vessels, whether armored or unarmored. These are the only two flags that are hoisted on British ships today, with the exception of the company's house flag, when they are entering port or passing at sea, and the mail flag on the foremast, which every steamship flies coming in to denote that she has mails on board.
"Before the war both the Lusitania and the Mauretania flew the blue ensign of the Royal Naval Reserve, which any British merchant vessel is allowed to do if her commander and officers and two-thirds of the crew belong to the reserve."