The Admiralty's comment on the Scapa episode is still more
to the point. It published on Thursday two documents found in Admiral von Reuter's safe in the ' Emden' after she was raised. One was a letter, dated May 9th last, from Admiral von Trotha, Chief of the German Admiralty, telling Admiral von Reuter that the German warships must in no case be surrendered and that their fate will be consummated by ourselves." It was a plain order to scuttle the ships. Yet the German Government asserted that Admiral von Reuter acted on his own responsibility without the knowledge of any German civil or military authority. The second document, dated June 17th last, contained the Admiral's instructions to the Captains. He informed them that he would " sink the ships only if the enemy should attempt to obtain possession of them without the assent of our Government," and that if Germany agreed to surrender them the ships would be handed over. The Admiral had obviously received orders from Berlin that day, when German transports reached Scapa, to scuttle the ships while his Government were accepting the demand of the Allies for their surrender. The German Government are thus proved guilty of deliberate lying. The revolution may have changed a few things in Germany, but German Ministers still remain incapable of telling the truth.
