GERMANY'S ABOMINABLE COURSE.

Marlborough Express, Volume LI, Issue 95, 24 April 1917, Page 2

GERMANY'S ABOMINABLE COURSE.

VARIATION OF OLD LIES

(Atis and N.Z. Assn. and Renter.; LONDON, April' 22.- --' Press .Bureau reports: A German wireless message accused' the French, and British of employing ves-' sels carrying the markings of Belgian relief ships for the purpose of attacking submarines. The allegation is untrue aud merely a variation of the equally groundless assertion that the Entente was misusing hospital ships. It is evidently intended as a pretext for torpedoing Belgian relief ships without warning. It is alleged that the {inhuman submarining of hospital ships is tho elimination of savagery, and has brought, the' world face to face with a. situation unparalleled in civilised warfare. It has no. justification in any conceivable, distortion of interna- ' toonal law or. the most brutal creed of necessity. Following the sinking of +he Asturias and Gloucester Castle Britain decided to transport the wounded, in vessels not bearing distinctive markingp, and notified Germany of the withdrawal of certain hospital ships. The fighting on the West front is leaving a very large number of wounded Germans on our / hands. Practically all the ships' biingincc wounded are bound to carry .a proportion of Germans. It remains to bo scon whether the'knowledge will deilerst the German Government from its abo'itinable course.