Affidavits by the officers of the Dutch liner Tubantia '
leave no doubt whatever that she was torpedoed. The wake of the torpedo was clearly soon by the first and fourth officers and the look-out man. At the moment when the crime was committed the vessel was about to anchor in misty weather near the North Hinder lightship. The German comments on the affair are as various and bewildering as usual. The German Government and the German newspapers regularly combine to create a fog, and then make diplomatic use of any chance occurrences in the general obscurity. In the case of the Tubantia ' at least three distinct explanations or excuses have been offered to the world—(l) that the Tubantia ' struck a mine ; (2) that she was torpedoed by a - British submarine, two British submarines having been seen waiting near the lightship ; (3) that she could not possibly have been sunk by a German submarine, as she was outside the war zone within which it would have been permissible to sink her. As our American friends might say, "What is the matter with" (4) that she was sunk because she was such a tempting shot, and what business anyway' had she got to beIanging about the North Seal
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