a ship flying a neutral flag, of sinking a vessel belonging
to a neutral power.

Here was another matter that opened up diplomatic exchanges between
Germany and the United States, and between the United States and
England. It suffices here to give not only the controversy or the
points involved, but the record of events. The first use of the flag
of a neutral country by a ship belonging to one of the belligerents in
the Great War occurred on January 31, 1915, when the Cunard liner
_Orduna_ carried the American flag at her forepeak in journeying from
Liverpool to Queenstown. She again did so on February 1, 1915, when
she left the latter port for New York. And another notable instance
was on February 11, 1915, when the _Lusitania_, another Cunard liner,
arrived at Liverpool flying the American flag in obedience to orders
issued by the British admiralty. It was only the prominence of these
vessels which gave them notoriety in this regard; the same practice
was indulged in by many smaller ships.

"What will happen after the 18th?" was the one important question
asked during February, 1915, by the public of the neutral as well as
belligerent countries.

February 18, 1915, arrived and saw Von Pohl's proclamation go into
effect, and from that date onward the toll of ships sunk, both of
neutral and belligerent countries, grew longer daily.

But before the German submarines could begin the new campaign, those
of the British navy became active, and it was admitted in Berlin on
February 15, 1915, that British submarines had made their way into the
Baltic, through the sound between Sweden and Denmark, where they
attacked the German cruiser _Gazelle_ unsuccessfully.

Nor was the British navy inactive in other ways, though it had been
greatly discredited by the fact that the German submarines were
playing havoc with British shipping right at England's door. A fleet
of two battleships and several cruisers drew up off Westende and
bombarded the German trenches on the 4th of February, 1915.

Only one day after the war-zone proclamation went into effect the
Allies brought out their trump card for the spring of 1915.

CHAPTER XXVIII

ATTACK ON THE DARDANELLES

By the middle of February, 1915, the Allies completed the arrangement
for the naval attack on the Dardanelles. The military part of the
campaign in these regions is treated in the chapter on the "Campaign
in the Dardanelles"; hence we must confine ourselves at pr