Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 197, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 August 1915 — WASHINGTON STUNNED BY SINKING OF ARABIC [ARTICLE]

WASHINGTON STUNNED BY SINKING OF ARABIC

White Star Steamer Sunk In War Zone By German Submarine Near Sinking of Lusitania. News has reached this country of the sinking of the ship Arabic of the White Star line by a German submarine. No warning, it is said, was given by the German boat. The news came as a shock to Washington and the whole country, because we had thought that since the last note to Germany that no furher aggravation would come of the already tense situation between the United States and Germany. It is not thought that the loss of life will be large. There were 180 passengers and 247 in the crew on the ship, making a total of 423 on board. So far two American lives are unaccounted for.

In the last note to Germany, which it was generally accepted was the final word on the principals of the questions of the United States, Secretary Lansing used the following in referring to American rights in the war zone: “Friendship itself prompts it (the United States) to say to the imperial government that repetition by the commanders of the German submarines of those acts would be considered deliberately unfriendly. If no American lives were lost, it is thought in most quarters that drastic measures are improbable, but in event it is found Americans were drowned, a rupture in- diplomatic relations is discussed as likely.