Sir,

(Enclosure 2.)-Mr. Balfour to Sir W. Townley.

Foreign Office, October 26, 1918. FOLLOWING On the attacks made by the enemy on the British hospital ships "Rewa,' "Glenart Castle," and "Guildford Castle" in the Bristol Channel in the first three months of this year, the British hospital ship "Llandovery Castle was torpedoed without warning and sunk by a German submarine in the Atlantic Ocean on the 27th June last. The vessel was showing all her navigation lights and the special lights carried by hospital ships to make her character plain. She sank about ten minutes after being struck by the torpedo.

2. The "Llandovery Castle' was homeward bound from Canada, and therefore had no sick or wounded on board. Her crew consisted of 164 officers and men, and she carried 80 officers and men of the Canadian Army Medical Corps and 14 female nurses. Only one boat, containing 24 survivors out of this total of 258 persons, reached port. The search for further survivors proved fruitless.

3. The master of the hospital ship escaped in the boat which eventually reached land. This boat, while engaged immediately after the disaster in rescuing men in the water, was, in spite of explanations, prevented from continuing such work by the submarine, which peremptorily ordered her alongside and insisted on several men being left to drown.

4. The master was summoned on board the submarine, and was informed by the commander that the hospital ship had had on board eight American flight officers. This was quite untrue, as might have been ascertained by an exercise of the right of visit and search, provided for in Article 4 of The Hague Convention* for the adaptation to maritime warfare of the principles of the Geneva Convention.

5. The remark shows that the attack on the ship was deliberate and premeditated. It appears also to indicate that the attack was made in consequence of orders given to the submarine by some superior German authority, who alleged the presence of the flight officers on board the hospital ship. The inference is that it is a settled plan of the German High Command to destroy hospital ships on any or no evidence, without exercising the right of visit and search.

6. A little later the second officer, who was in the same boat as the master of the hospital ship, was summoned on board the submarine, where the commander suggested to him. that the noise made by the explosion of the boilers of the sinking vessel was caused by the explosion of ammunition. Vol. C, page 415.

The officer denied the allegation, which, like the first one made, is totally without foundation. Further allegations are somewhat obscurely made in an official or semi-official statement issued in Berlin through the Wolff Bureau on the 3rd July last, to the effect that Canadian, not United States, airmen had been on board the hospital ship, and that the vessel had previously been chartered for the purpose of carrying prisoners of war. It cannot be stated too emphatically that the Llandovery Castle was never, since she became a hospital ship, used in any way not in accordance with the provisions of international law governing the employment of such vessels.

7. After the master had been interrogated, the submarine circled round several times at a high speed through the wreckage, narrowly missing, on the last occasion by 2 feet only, the boat containing the master and other survivors. It seems clear that these were repeated attempts to ram and sink the boat.

8. The submarine then withdrew and began to fire in different directions at targets not visible to the boat, one shell passing over the latter. As none of the other boats, in which, among others, were the fourteen female nurses, was ever seen again, it is to be presumed that they were all sunk by the firing. There can, in the circumstances, be little doubt that the German commander attempted to slaughter all the witnesses of his crime-to sink the ship without leaving any trace, according to Count Luxburg's notorious phrase.

9. This is the fourth case of deliberate attack without warning on British hospital ships which has been perpetrated by enemy submarines since the commencement of the present year alone. The first three cases have so far been denied by the German Government, who profess to disbelieve the facts. On the present occasion no denial is possible, since the submarine was actually seen and communicated with by the survivors.

10. These outrages have all been committed in waters in which by solemn assurance given in writing to the Spanish Embassy in Berlin on the 17th October last, and emphatically repeated since that date, the German Government had undertaken that hospital ships should be respected in conformity with The Hague Convention.

11. I request you will address a note in the above sense to the Netherlands Government, asking them to communicate its substance to the German Government, together with the enclosed copies of sworn declarations* supporting the statements made above, and to convey the strongest protest from His Majesty's Government against the attack made on the *Not printed.

"Llandovery Castle," in violation of the principles of humanity, of the rules of international law, and of the solemn promises given by the German Government themselves during the present war.

I am, &c.

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.

SPEECH OF THE KING to the Members of both Houses of Parliament in reply to Addresses of Congratulations on the signature of an Armistice and on the prospect of a Victorious Peace.--Westminster, November 19, 1918.

I THANK you for your loyal addresses of congratulations on the signature of an armistice and on the prospect of a victorious peace.

At this moment, without parallel in our history and in the history of the world, I am glad to meet you and the representatives of India and the Dominions beyond the seas: that we may render thanks to Almighty God for the promise of a peace now near at hand, and that I may express to you, and through you to the peoples whom you represent, the thoughts that rise in my mind at a time so solemn.

I do this with a heart full of grateful recognition of the spontaneous and enthusiastic expressions of loyalty and affection which I have been privileged to receive both personally here in the metropolis and by messages from all parts of these islands, as well as from every quarter of the Empire. During the past four years of national stress and anxiety my support has been faith in God and confidence in my people. In the days to come, days of uncertainty and of trial, strengthened by the same help, I shall strive to the utmost of my power to discharge the responsibilities laid upon me, to uphold the honour of the Empire, and to promote the wellbeing of the peoples over whom I am called to reign.

After a struggle longer and far more terrible than anyone could have foretold, the soil of Britain remains inviolate. Our navy has everywhere held the seas, and wherever the enemy could be brought to battle it has renewed the glories of Drake and Nelson. The incessant work it has accomplished in overcoming the hidden menace of the enemy submarines and guarding the ships that have brought food and munitions to our shores has been less conspicuous, but equally essential to success. Without that work Britain

might have starved, and those valiant soldiers of America. who have so much contributed to our victory could not have found their way hither across the foam of perilous seas.

The fleet has enabled us to win the war.. In fact, without the fleet, the struggle could not have been maintained, for upon the command of the sea the very existence and maintenance of our land forces have from the first depended.

That we should have to wage this war on land had scarcely entered our thoughts until the storm actually broke upon us. But Belgium and France were suddenly invaded and the uation rose to the emergency. Within a year an army more than ten times the strength of that which was ready for action in August 1914 was raised by voluntary enlistment, largely owing to the organising genius and personal influence of Lord Kitchener, and the number of that army was afterwards far more than doubled.

These new soldiers, drawn from the civil population, have displayed a valour equal to that of their ancestors, who have carried the flag of Britain to victory in so many lands in bygone times. Short as was their training, they have imitated and rivalled the prowess of the small but ever-famous force which, in the early weeks of the war, from Mons to the Marne, fought its magnificent retreat against vastly superior numbers. Not less prompt was the response, not less admirable the devotion to the common cause, of those splendid troops which eagerly hastened to us from the Dominions overseas, men who showed themselves more than ever to be bone of our bone, inheriting all the courage and tenacity that have made Britain great. A hundred battlefields in all parts of the world have witnessed their heroism, have been soaked with their blood, and are for ever hallowed by their graves.

I shall ever remember how the Princes of India rallied to the cause, and with what ardour her soldiers sustained in many theatres of war, and under conditions the most diverse and exacting, the martial traditions of their race. Neither can I forget how the men from the Crown Colonies and Protectorates of Great Britain, also fighting amid novel and perilous scenes, exhibited a constancy and devotion second

to none.

To all these, and to their Commanders who, in fields so scattered and against enemies so different in Europe, Asia, and Africa, have for four years confronted the hazards, overcome the perils, and finally decided the issues of war, our gratitude is most justly due. They have combined the highest military skill with unsurpassed resolution, and amid the heat of the battlefield have never been deaf to the calls of chivalry and humanity.

Particularly would I mention the names of Field-Marshal

Sir Douglas Haig, whose patient and indomitable leadership ably seconded by his fellow-Commanders, has been rewarded by the final rout of the enemy on the field of so much sacrifice and glory; of General Sir Edmund Allenby, who, in a campaign unique in military history, has won back for Christendom the spoil for which centuries had fought and bled in vain; and of General Sir Stanley Maude and his successor, who gained, in a scene of no less romance, the first resounding victory of the war for the Allied cause.

While I mention those who have served their country till the end of the struggle, let us not forget the incomparable services of the leaders who in the early days of the war, before fortune had begun to smile, upheld the best traditions of British arms by land and sea; of Field-Marshal Lord French of Ypres, whose title recalls the scene of his undying renown; and of Admirals Lord Jellicoe and Sir David Beatty, who have for four years been the spirit and soul, as they were the successive Commanders, of the fighting fleet of the Empire.

Let us remember also those who belong to the most recent military arm, the keen-eyed and swift-winged knights of the air, who have given to the world a new type of daring and resourceful heroism.

So must we further acknowledge the dauntless spirit of the men of the mercantile marine and the fishermen who patrolled our coasts, braving all the dangers of mine and torpedo in the discharge of duty.

Let our thanks also be given to those who have toiled incessantly at home, women no less than men, in producing munitions of war, and to those who have rendered essential war service in many other ways. There are whole fields of service wherein workers, old and young, have toiled unknown and unrequited save by the consciousness that they were answering to the call of duty. Notable, too, has been the contribution made to the common welfare by those who volunteered as surgeons, physicians, chaplains, and nurses, fearlessly exposing themselves to danger in their tasks of mercy. While all these have laboured with the same glowing spirit of unselfish service, may we not be proud also of the attitude maintained by the whole people at home? Unwonted privations have been cheerfully borne, and the hearts of those who were facing the stress of battle have been cheered by the steadfast confidence with which those whom they had left at home awaited the issue, and assured them of their unfaltering devotion to the prosecution of the war.

While we find in these things cause for joy and pride, our hearts go out in sorrowful sympathy to the parents, the wives, and the children who have lost those who were the light and stay of their lives. They gave freely of what was the most