REPLY TO AFRICA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13700, 2 June 1915, Page 3

REPLY TO AFRICA.

GERMANY ATTEMPTS TO JUSTIFY PIRACY POLICY.

VON JAGOW'S STATEMENT

SUBMARINE TRAPS AMERICAN VESSEL BY USING SAILS.

WASHINGTON, June 1. The text of the German Note as published confirms the cabled summary. The Note avers that Germany doe> not intend to attack neutral ships m the war zone, and is not guilty of host 1 1 o acts. German officers have been re peatedly instructed to avoid such at tacks, and if neutral ships have suffer ed it is due to mistaken identification, and m some cases is attributable to Britain's abuse of the flag, together with the suspicious or culpable behavior of the masters of the ships.' . Herr Von Jagow, interviewed by an American correspondent m Berlin, sail that from the outset Germany was willing to 'abandon her submarine war mi, merchantmen if England raised the em bargo on foodstuffs and raw material on the conditional contraband list. It was England's fault, not Germany's, thnl America's well-meant proposals had failed. The question of foodstuffs and £aw^ materials was not a question ol[ necessity for Germany, but of principle Germany had shown that she could not be starved out. She might be short of some particular foodstuff, but hail enough to live on and continue tho struggle. Similarly it was true of raw materials. Germany Was able to. get along even if her imports were cut off, but Germany objected to Britain 5 .? cool aassumption, when she was unable to defeat the German armies legitini" ately on the battlefield, that .she. wa.* 1 entitled to force the nation to its knee* by economic pressure, disregarding < ) I the accepted precepts and regulations. There was no 'precedent for tho siegu of the civilian population of a whoio nation m its own land, -with no possi bilty of escape, Germany would fight /such an unjustified method of war with all tho means at her disposal. . Herr Von Jagow was unable to tel! how Germany's Note would be received, as ho had no means of communicating with the Ambassador at Washington, and had no cables, while our wirelew was read or interfered -with by tho British. Germany was practically cv\. off frorti America, and was working m the dark. Mr Gerrard has cabled that the Gulf Light was torpedoed by mistake. LONDON, June 1. The German newspaper VossiscPc Zeitung says if America allows American citizens to risk England's reckless ness and 'then 'blames Germany, she -is no longer neutral. A shell passed through the Dixiana '» engine-room, and narrowly missed upsetting a boat. ■ Splinters badly injured the second mate, y The Dixiana was deceived by the submarine using sails.