FOREIGN OFFICE.
ENGLAND ANSWERS GERMANY.[A]
[By The Associated Press.]
[Footnote A: In Germany's reply to the American protest against certain
features of the "war zone" order, which was received in Washington on
Feb. 14, occurred this expression:
If the United States ... should succeed at the last moment in
removing the grounds which make that procedure [submarine
warfare on merchant vessels] an obligatory duty for Germany
... and thereby make possible for Germany legitimate
importation of the necessaries of life and industrial raw
material, then the German Government ... would gladly draw
conclusions from the new situation.
In the German note to the American Government justifying the sinking of
the Lusitania presented above, appears this clause:
In spite of the German offer to stop the submarine war in case
the starvation plan was given up....
These two expressions are referred to in the British official statement,
published herewith, in these words:
It was not understood from the reply of the German Government
[of Feb. 14] that they were prepared to abandon the principle
of sinking British vessels by submarine.
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