... 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.

Whether this may regarded as an opening for the renewal of the German
offer in explicit terms, with the implication that England might accept
it, is not explained.]


_LONDON, Wednesday, May 12.--Inquiry in official circles elicited last
night the following statement, representing the official British view of
Germany's justification for torpedoing the Lusitania which Berlin
transmitted to the State Department at Washington:_

The German Government states that responsibility for the loss of the
Lusitania rests with the British Government, which through their plan of