Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 105, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 May 1915 — POLITE TO VICTIMS [ARTICLE]

POLITE TO VICTIMS

German Sea Raiders Are Courteous and Generous. British Skippers Tell of Kind Treatment Received From Commanders of Kaiser's Submarines —Art Given Wine and Cigars. London. —The commanders of the German sea raiders are treating the victims of their raids with excessive courtesy and even generosity. I have Just obtained from Capt. Leonard Malley of the Ellerman liner Andalusian some further details of his meeting with the famous Lieut. Otto von Weddigen, who, by sinking four British warships, has made the most successful record of all the undersea chiefs. He now commands the U-29, which attacked the Andalusian off the Scilly Islands.

In leaving his vessel Captain Malley painfully injured his side; Von Weddigen ordered him taken into the cabin, where his hurts were bandaged. The cigars and port wine were set out and over these the British skipper- told the German as politely as possible what he thought of the Von Tirpitz policy concerning merchantmen. “It is our duty,” replied Lieutenant von Weddigen simply. "At the same time we do not want to take civilian lives. It is the ships we want to kill, not the men.” Up to this time Captain Malley did not know the name of his captor. He now thought he recognized the German commander’s face from pictures he had seen in illustrated weeklies and asked him: “Aren’t you the man who sunk four British cruisers last autumn?” “Yes,” responded Von Weddigen, without emotion. “I was commanding the U-9 then.” They had a conversation of about an hour. The lieutenant said that his boat, one of the latest type, was fitted with two machine guns instead of one, as in the case of older submarines. Traveling awash he could catch anything up to 17 knots. Speaking in general of the war, he expressed deep regret that it should have proved inevitable. “It is an awful business,” he remarked with feeling.,. “It is my personal hope that it may soon be over. Britain and Germany ought not to be at enmity; we ought to be allies. Just think of it—Britain as the world’s greatest sea power and the great German army together; we could command the world.”

In the meantime the crew of the Andalusian had been taken from the boats. These the submarine took ip tow and the British crew were massed on deck. The men, to whom the German officers handed cigars, were packed tightly together and had to stand up. Two of the submarine crew

stood by with revolvers in their hands. When they parted one of the officers waved his hand and said: “Be good enough to give our respects to Mr. Churchill”—Winston Churchill, British first lord of the admiralty.

Captain Williams of the Indian City, whose craft was torpedoed off the Sclllies, was invited on board the submarine. The captain of the raider brought out a box of cigars and a bottle of wine and conversed with the British sailor while the ship’s boats with their crews were being towed to the islands.

Suddenly two British patrol boats were sighted. Captain Williams was politely ordered by the German commander to get into one of his own boats. The submarine then made off. The patrol boats chased her and fired, but the submarine was too fast for them and easily got away.

The Adenwen was also torpedoed by Von Weddigen 25 miles off the Gasquets. The captain asked the German to spare his ship, but the commander replied that as war was war he was unable to accede to the request, adding, “I am very, very sorry to have'to sink your ship." The crew was allowed ten minutes

to launch their lifeboats. The Germans gave the British a box of cigars and wanted to know if they had enough to eat.