The sinking of the British passenger steamer _Falaba_ by a German
submarine on March 28, through which Leon C. Thrasher, an American
citizen, was drowned; the attack on April 28 on the American vessel
_Cushing_ by a German aeroplane; the torpedoing on May 1 of the American
vessel _Gulflight_ by a German submarine as a result of which two or
more American citizens met their death; and, finally, the torpedoing and
sinking of the steamship _Lusitania_, constitute a series of events
which the Government of the United States has observed with growing
concern, distress, and amazement.
FROM UNITED STATES NOTE TO GERMANY,
_May 13, 1915._
[Illustration]
_THE LUSITANIA--HEROD'S NIGHTMARE_
"_Are they crying 'Mother'--or 'Murder'?_"
This represents not merely piracy, but piracy on a vaster scale of
murder than old-time pirates ever practiced. This is the warfare which
destroyed Louvain and Dinant and hundreds of men, women, and children in
Belgium. It is a warfare against innocent men, women, and children
traveling on the ocean, and our own fellow-countrymen and countrywomen,
who are among the sufferers.
It seems inconceivable that we can refrain from taking action in this
matter, for we owe it not only to humanity, but to our own national
self-respect.
COL. THEODORE ROOSEVELT.
_May 7, 1915._
[Illustration]
_VICTIMS OF GERMAN KULTUR_
Whatever be the other facts regarding the _Lusitania_, the principal
fact is that a great steamer, primarily and chiefly a conveyance for
passengers, and carrying more than a thousand souls having no part or
lot in the conduct of the war, was torpedoed and sunk without so much as
a challenge or a warning, that men, women and children were sent to
their death in circumstances unparalleled in modern warfare.
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S
NOTE TO GERMANY.
[Illustration]
_THE VERDICT_
"_It is the Hour, come_"
We find that this appalling crime was contrary to International law and
the conventions of all civilized nations, and we therefore charge the
officers of the said submarine, and the Emperor of the Government of
Germany, under whose orders they acted, with the crime of wilful and
wholesale murder before the tribunal of the civilized world. We desire
to express our sincere condolence with the relatives of deceased; the
Cunard Company; and the United States of America, so many of whose
citizens perished in this murderous attack on an unarmed liner.
_The unanimous verdict of the Irish jury at
the inquest of the "Lusitania" victims._
[Illustration]
"_THIS IS TOO BORING, DO SUGGEST SOMETHING NEW_"
_Some German achievements in the first months of the Great War_:
The violation of Belgium and Luxemburg.
Massacre of civilian populations in Belgium and France.
Bombardment by warships of open towns.
Murder of civilians by air raids.
Murder of civilians on the high seas.
The introduction of liquid fire and poison gas.
Enslavement of conquered civilian communities.
[Illustration]
"_HAVE ANOTHER PIECE?_"
Without a drop of blood flowing, and without the life of a single
Italian being endangered, Italy could have secured the long list of
concessions which I recently read to the House--territory in Tyrol and
on the Isonzo as far as the Italian speech is heard, satisfactions of
the national aspirations in Trieste, a free hand in Albania, and the
valuable port of Valona.
VON BETHMANN-HOLLWEG.
_Reichstag, May 28, 1915._
[Illustration]
_THE WOLF-TRAP_
_Italy: "You would make me believe that I shall have my cub given back
to me, but I know I shall have to fight for it"_
The discussion continued for months from the first days of December to
March, and it was not until the end of March that Barion Burian offered
a zone of territory comprised within a line extending from the existing
boundary to a point just north of the City of Trent.
In exchange for this proposed cession the Austro-Hungarian Government
demanded a number of pledges, including among them an assurance of
entire liberty of action in the Balkans. _Note should be made of the
fact that the cession of the territory around Trent was not intended to
be immediately effective as we demanded, but was to be made only upon
the termination of the European War._
SIGNOR SONNINO.
_Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs._
_May 25, 1915._
[Illustration]
_THE BROKEN ALLIANCE AND ITALY_
"_Twenty years and more you've forced me to wear this chain_"
For the guardianship, therefore, of these treaties the government of
the kingdom of Italy found itself constrained to notify the Imperial
Austrian Government on the fourth of this month, May, 1915, that it must
withdraw all of its proposals of agreement, denounce the treaty of the
alliance, and declare its own liberty of action. Nor, on the other hand,
was it more possible to leave Italy in isolation without security and
without prestige, just at the moment in which the history of the world
was taking on a decisive phase.
Everything else we must forget from this moment, and remember only this:
to be _Italians_, to love all Italy with the same faith and fervor. The
forces of all must be cemented into one single heart; only one single
will must guide all toward the wished for end; and force, and art, and
will must find their expression one, alive, and heroic in the army and
navy of Italy and in the august leader who conducts them toward the
destiny of the new history.
ANTONIO SALANDRA.
_President of the Ministerial Council._
_Rome. May 20, 1915._
[Illustration]
_GOTT STRAFE ITALIEN_
Neither Serbia nor Russia, despite a long and costly war, is hated.
Italy, however, or rather those Italian would be politicians and
business men who offer violence to the majority of peaceful Italian
people, are so unutterably hated with the most profound honesty that
this war can produce.
_The Frankfurter Zeitung, May 25, 1915._
[Illustration]
_THE LATIN SISTERS_
_Italy: "Indeed she is my sister"_
Giuseppe Garibaldi with a corps of Italian soldiers went to the defense
of the French Republic in the war of 1870 against the Prussians,
performing heroic deeds at Dijon worthy of an epopee.
Ricciotti Garibaldi, living son of the Hero, with a corps of Italian
volunteers went to the defense of Greece against Turkey in 1897,
performing heroic deeds worthy of an epopee at Domokos.
Peppino Garibaldi, living son of Ricciotti, with a corps of Italian
volunteers went to the defense of the French Republic in the present war
against Germany, performing heroic deeds worthy of an epopee in the
Argonne.
_From "Why Italy entered the Great War."_
LUIGI CARNOVALE.
[Illustration]
_THE ZEPPELIN TRIUMPH_
"_But Mother had done nothing wrong, had she, Daddy?_"
The first Zeppelin attack on London was made on the evening of the last
day of May, 1915. Zeppelins passed over Colchester at 10 o'clock, and at
twenty-three minutes past ten the people in one of the poorest and most
crowded quarters of East End were startled to find bomb after bomb,
mainly of incendiary type, dropping among them. A large number of
civilians including many women and children were killed.
By shell from sea, by bomb from air,
Our greeting shall be sped,
Making each English homestead
A mansion of the dead.
And even Grey will tremble
As falls each iron word;
"God punish England, brother?
Yea! Punish her, O Lord!"
_A Hymn of Hate by_ HERR HOCHSTETTER.
_Translated by_
CAPT. G. VALENTINE WILLIAMS.
_London Daily Mail._
[Illustration]
_MY SON, GO AND FIGHT FOR YOUR MOTHERLAND_