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Show I BRITISH TROOPS SHOW COURAGE London. Sept. 24, 1 p. m. The British Brit-ish admiral ly lias issued a formal reply re-ply to the statement given publicity by the German minister at ('open hi. en. to the effect that British officers of-ficers fired on drowning German sailors sail-ors after the naval engagement of Heligoland, and that a British shell was thrown Into a life boat contain ing German survivors of this fight The admiralty admits tho charge that the shell was thrown but explains ex-plains the circumstance as follows. Every effort was made to save until a German cruiser of the Stettin class appeared on the scene and opm eri a heavy fir on the British destroyers des-troyers and their small boats. The destroyers were allowed to retire in order to avoid destruction. The Gcshawk removed her men from her boat leaving it to German prisoners, nearly all of whom were wounded It is to be regretted that a bluejacket on the forecastle of the Goshawk, exasperated at the Inhuman conduct of the German cruiser, threw a projectile pro-jectile which could not possibly, uu-dei uu-dei the circumstances, have exploded Into this small boat as It drifted pa6t hlfl ship. i Act Not Defended. 'I "This, no doubt. Is the incident re- 1 ferrod to by the German minister at Copenhagen It cannot be defended. J but the act was done under consid- ,j erable provocation and it was surely 4 a trivial offense compared to that j of the German cruiser, which fired -j many shells at the boats of British jj destroyers while they were engaged In humane and chivalrous action." m Dealing with the rescue by the Brit- ish submarine E-4 of the occupants 4 of two boats which the destroyer De j fender had been obliged to abandon I under heavy fire, the admiralty says: I "After covering the retreat of the J destroyer, the submarine returned to the boats and removed the British 1 ufficers and men and three Germans, j T he submarine might well have taken i Another German officer and six un- J wounded prisoners, but as the two j boats contained 18 very badly wound ;1 ed Germans, he humanely left the j German officer and the six men who ,1 were not hurt to care for and navi- j, Kate the boats. Before leaving the I si'bmarine saw that these boats weie I provided with water and biscuits and 3 a compass, and It gave the German i officers their position and the course I to Heligoland. J Care of Wounded. "The officers and men of the de- y jtroyer Defender stripped themselves j f even thing but their trousers, tear- 1 Jig up their clothes to serve as band- J ages for the wounded Gormans .3 Regarding the allegations that Ger- 3 mns fired at German sailors who I jj wptc in the water, the admiralty 'M says there are many British naval s. officers and men who actually sa , . ofricers of the German cruisers Mainze and Koenignen Luise tire at I heir own men in the water, presumably presum-ably because they thought the sail-! sail-! orH wore prematurely deserting their posts. "There are many men in our hos-i hos-i pitals, ' tho admiralty continues, whose wounds testify to the accuracy accu-racy of the German officers' fire. Out of 350 men saved from the Mainzc about 130 were picked up swlmmlu-In swlmmlu-In the water Many of them had been wounded by revolver bullets. The remaining re-maining 200 could not be induced to jump overboard. They were taken off by a deBtroyer which lay alongside Ju6t before the Mainz went down. |