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Show 0. S. SUGGESTS PLAN TO FEED MJIiS Informal Proposals Made to Great Britain and Germany for a Basis of Understanding Under-standing on Foodstuffs. WASHINGTON. Feb. ;3. Proposals have been made informally by the I nitea biatts government to boui Ureal Britain and (Jermany suggesting a. uasis for an unoerMa mnng on the, suujert. of foodstuffs food-stuffs lor the civilian population of belligerents bellig-erents and submarine warfare against mercnani ships. These proposals have been guarded with tho utmost secrecy and their nature has not been revealed by oiiicials, who are reluctant to discuss them because of the Xielicacy of the. negotiations. Simultaneously wiih the revelations tonight to-night that a new move had been made by the Washington government came dispatches dis-patches telling of the blowing up of a second American vessel, the steamship Carib, near the German coast, an incident which increased the anxiety on the part of officials for an early unaerstanuuig with belligerents on pending questions. The wreck of the first vessel, the Evelyn, Eve-lyn, was viewed by President Wilson as a tragic accident, due to the possible tailure of the captain to follow the ier-ma ier-ma il admiralty's instructions respecting the locations ol" its mine iieids. (jificiats were inclined tonight to think the Canb disaster was of a similar nature, though they had no official advices. Replies Far-ieaching. As for the proposals made to the belligerents, it is known that they are ot far-reaching importance. They are in no sense in the nature of replies to Great Britain and Germany, though they relate to the same subject. The belief most commonly held here is that some form of supervision over the distribution of foodstuffs food-stuffs to the civilian population of Ger- nianv pithr ,v imorif',ni fnnsnlar aep.ntS I or American organizations, has been pro-i pro-i posed. It was recalled that such a proposal pro-posal was made by Germany, but coulii not be put into effect without the consent of all the belligerents. Germany has, offered to abandon her submarine warfare if assured that ships laden with foodstuffs for Germany will not be interrupted by Great Britain. President Wilson discussed with his cabinet today the general situation produced pro-duced by the declaration of a submarine war on merchant vessels and it was said later that the replies from England and Germany to the informal representations would have a considerable bearing on the final course of the American government. Earlier In the day the president indicated to callers that he had not decided whether the notes received from Germany Ger-many and Great Britain on the sea zones and the use of neutral flags required rejoinders, re-joinders, as it was not yet apparent whether there was any necessity to restate re-state the position of the United States, so emphatically expressed in the correspondence corre-spondence with both belligerents. U. S. Remains Firm. The general Impression was that the United States government had reiterated informally to the belligerents the seriousness serious-ness with which it viewed the situation, especially the possible effect on American commerce as a result of retaliatory meas- ! ures of England and Germany toward each other. Officials spoke guardedly, but ; with no concealment of their apprehen- , sions over the situation which might de- 1 velop If American lives were lost as a, result of a submarine attack. To some extent this feeling has been revealed in the accidents which American ships have met with in the mine fields, although the difficulty or fixing responsibility responsi-bility for such mishaps has prevented the Washington government from taking a decisive stand in the matter. The Carib was the second ship insured by the government war risk bureau, $235,850 on her cargo and $22,253 on her hull. With a loss on the Evelyn the bureau probably will have, to pay a total of $ti59,D0O, which about equals the sum , collected to date in premiums. Undoubtedly Undoubt-edly both cases will be subject to civil suits for damages by the bureau. ! |