DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

140 CASE OF THE PERSIA.
of an Austro-Hungarian submarine in the sinking of the
S. S. Persia, on which my telegram above referred to was
based.
I have, etc.,
FREDERIC C. PENFIELD.
[Inclosure—Translation.]
The Austro-Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs to
Ambassador Penjield.
No. 282.] I. AND K. MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
Vienna, January 21, 1916.
The undersigned has the honor, pursuant to his note
No. 49 of the 5th instant, to inform His Excellency the
Ambassador of the United States of America, with the
request to notify his Government thereof, that in the
meanwhile all the Austro-Hungarian submarines have
returned from their voyages and no one of them comes
into consideration in connection with the sinking of the
Persia.
The undersigned avails himself of this opportunity to
renew to His Excellency the Ambassador of the United
States the expression of his highest consideration.
BURIAN.
File No. 841.857P43/34a.
The Secretary of State to Charge Philip.
[Telegram—Paraphrase.]
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, February 2, 1916.
Mr. Lansing informs Mr. Philip that the Department
is in receipt of advices that on December 30, 1915, the
P. and O. line steamer Persia, British, which carried a
4.7 gun, while southeast of Crete about forty miles and
about three hundred miles northwest of Alexandria was
sunk without warning by an explosion which occurred
on the port side, caused by a torpedo. Immediately
before the ship was sunk the wake of the torpedo was
seen, and in a few minutes the ship sunk, so that it was
possible to launch only a few of the vessel's boats. Two
or more American citizens, one of them an American
Consular representative, en route to Aden, lost their
lives as a result of the destruction of the vessel.
Mr. Philip is instructed formally to bring this matter
to the attention of the Turkish Government, and to
request that he be informed as to whether the sinking
of the Persia was caused by a submarine operating under
the instructions of that Government, or by one carrying
the Turkish flag.