Hesperian was sunk September 4 by a German submarine; 26
lives lost, one American.

On October 5 the German government sent a communication regretting again
and disavowing the sinking of the Arabic, and stating its willingness to
pay indemnities.

Meanwhile depression existed among the Allies and alarm among nations
outside the war over the German conquest of Russian Poland. They
captured Lublin, July 31; Warsaw, August 4; Ivangorod, August 5; Kovno,
August 17; Novogeorgievsk, August 19; Brest-Litovsk, August 25, and
Vilna, September 18.

Activities of spies and plottings within the United States began to
divide attention with the war in Europe and the submarine situation. Dr.
Constantin Dumba, who was Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United
States, in a letter to the Austrian minister of foreign affairs, dated
August 20, recommended "most warmly" to the favorable consideration of
the foreign office "proposals with respect to the preparation of
disturbances in the Bethlehem steel and munitions factory, as well as in
the middle west."

He felt that "we could, if not entirely prevent the production of war
material in Bethlehem and in the middle west, at any rate strongly
disorganize it and hold it up for months."

The letter was intrusted to an American newspaper correspondent named
Archibald, who was just setting out for Europe under the protection of
an American passport. Archibald's vessel was held up at Falmouth,
England, his papers seized and their contents cabled to the United
States. On September 8 Secretary Lansing instructed our ambassador at
Vienna to demand Dr. Dumba's recall and the demand was soon acceded to
by his government.

On December 4 Captain Karl Boy-Ed, naval attache of the German embassy
in Washington, was dismissed by our government for "improper activity in
naval affairs." At the same time Captain Franz von Papen, military
attache of the embassy, was dismissed for "improper activity in military
matters." In an intercepted letter to a friend in Germany he referred to
our people as "those idiotic Yankees."

As a fitting wind-up of the year and as showing what the German promise
to protect liners amounted to, the British passenger steamer Persia was
sunk in the Mediterranean by a submarine December 30, 1915.

The opening of 1916 found the president struggling with the grave
perplexities of the submarine problem, exchanging notes with the German
government, taking fresh hope after each dis