ant ships, after Germany had begun to send them to the bottom
whenever one of its submarines caught up with them had gone through
the waters where the submarines operated flying the flag of the
United States and other neutral powers in order to deceive the
commanders of the submarines. The latter had little time to do
more than take a brief observation of merchantmen which they sank,
and one of the first things they sought was the nationality of the
flag that the intended victims carried; unless they could be sure
of the identity of a ship through familiarity with the lines of
her hull, they ran the risk, in attacking a ship flying a neutral
flag, of sinking a vessel belonging to a neutral power.

Here was another matter that opened up diplomatic exchanges between
Germany and the United States, and between the United States and
England. It suffices here to give not only the controversy or the
points involved, but the record of events. The first use of the flag
of a neutral country by a ship belonging to one of the belligerents
in the Great War occurred on January 31, 1915, when the Cunard liner
_Orduna_ carried the American flag at her forepeak in journeying
from Liverpool to Queenstown. She again did so on February 1, 1915,
when she left the latter port for New York. And another notable
instance was on February 11, 1915, when the _Lusitania_, another
Cunard liner, arrived at Liverpool flying the American flag in
obedience to orders issued by the British admiralty. It was only
the prominence of these vessels which gave them notoriety in this
regard; the same practice was indulged in by many smaller ships.

"What will happen after the 18th?" was the one important question
asked during February, 1915, by the public of the neutral as well
as belligerent countries.

February 18, 1915, arrived and saw Von Pohl's proclamation go into
effect, and from that date onward the toll of ships sunk, both
of neutral and belligerent countries, grew longer daily.

But before the German submarines could begin the new campaign,
those of the British navy became active, and it was admitted in
Berlin on February 15, 1915, that British submarines had made their
way into the Baltic, through the sound between Sweden and Denmark,
where they attacked the German cruiser _Gazelle_ unsuccessfully.

Nor was the British navy inactive in other ways, though it had
been greatly discredited by the fact that the German submarines
were playing havoc wi