The Black Flag
Reading edition
Germany Sinks British Hospital Ships
THE British Admiralty issued a statement on April 23 [1917], announcing the sinking of the two hospital steamships Donegal and Lanfranc without warning by submarines; nineteen British and fifteen wounded German officers were drowned. In their statement the British authorities denied the German charge that hospital ships were employed to transport troops and military supplies.... Germany was notified that, if her course was persisted in, reprisals would follow, yet the British hospital ship Asturias was torpedoed without warning on the night of March 20. The ship was steaming with all navigation lights burning and the proper Red Cross signs brilliantly illuminated.... On the night of March 30-31 the hospital ship Gloucester Castle met with a similar fate. On this occasion the Berlin official wireless message again published a notification that she was torpedoed by a U-boat, thus removing any possible doubt in the matter.
—The New York Times Current History.
