Two American merchantmen, the Orleans' and Rochester,' owned in`America and
worked by American crews; sailed from New York fof Bordeaux on Saturday last, calmly ignoring the new German decree. The vessels are unarmed and unmarked, and, it is said, carry no contraband. The only " stripes " carried are the Stars and Stripes. While these ships were eploughing the Atlantic on their lawful occasions, Germany announced on Tuesday that the period of grace, of which she had said nothing, had elapsed for neutral vessels and for enemy passenger ships in the Atlantic war zone on Monday. The suggestion is, of course, that her submarines have not really been doing their worst, and that the German public need not be disappointed at the meagre results so far achieved. Germany thus ignores the fate of-the liner California,' and denies that neutral ships had been sunk this month in the Atlantic. She declares- that " vessels which in spite of this . warning enter the blockaded zones do so with full knowledge of the danger threatening them and their crews." Will her submarines be instructed or permitted to torpedo the Orleans' and Rochester ' as the German Press threatens ? Meanwhile an American schooner, the Lyman M. Law,' timber-laden, has been destroyed by an enemy submarine off the Sardinian coast.
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