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Show SKKKIHG OF PERSIA Affidavits of JWembers of Crew Not Yet Sent to the State Department. WASHINGTON-, Jan. 22. The state department de-partment virtually has abandoned hope of determining what destroyed tlie British steamship Persia, sunk in the Mediterranean Mediter-ranean with a Joss of at least two American Ameri-can lives. Austria-Hungary and Germany have disclaimed responsibility for the disaster, and, affidavits of surviving passengers being inconclusive, but one avenue of information in-formation remains open. This is through the British government, which had In its possession affidavits from members of the crew. The affidavits were turned over to a British consular representative at Alexandria, Egypt, and were forwarded forward-ed to London. The state department has not yet been advised that the documents have reached their destination. It is known that the Persia's crew was on the lookout for submarines for some time prior to the explosion which caused the ship to go down, and the state department will not finally decide that the cause of the disaster is an unsolvable mystery until the contents of the crew's affidavits are known. The opinion pre-' pre-' vails, however, that if conclusive proof that the Persia was torpedoed was contained con-tained in the affidavits, mention of the fact would have been made before this time by the British government. A rejoinder to Austria's latest reply regarding re-garding the Ancona case has been held up, pending the possible receipt of more Information regarding tlie Persia. Officials Offi-cials consider that there is a possibility the situation may yet so develop as to warrant mention of the Persia in the rejoinder, re-joinder, but the Ancona negotiations probably will not be delayed much longer on that account. ; The state department tonight had heard only through press dispatches of the disclaimer dis-claimer regarding the Persia delivered to Embassador Penfiekl by the Vienna foreign for-eign office. A dispatch from t lie embassador em-bassador momentarily was expected, however. |