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Show AUSTRIA EXPECTED TO IKE APOLOGY UNITED STATES ASKS REPARATION REPARA-TION FOR ATTACK ON AMERICAN AMERI-CAN STEAMER PETROLITE. Will Demand an Apology for the Attack, At-tack, Punishment of the Submarine Commander, and Reparation for the Damage Done. Washington. The United States is preparing to make formal demands upon Austria Hungary as a result ol the attack by an Austrian submarine upon the American tank steamer I'e-trolite. I'e-trolite. A note on the subject will be dispatched within a few days. It was authoritatively slated Saturday Satur-day night that the United States would stand by its original contention and ask an apology for the attack, punishment punish-ment of the .submarine commander, and reparation for the damage done to the vessel and injuries inflicted on a member of the crew who was hit by a piece of shell. In reply to the first American communication com-munication on the subject, Austria informed in-formed the state department that its version of the affair was that the submarine sub-marine commander thought the Petro-lite Petro-lite an enemy ship disguised with the American flag; that he fired on the vessel because he believed it was about to ram his ship, and that the commander of the Petrolite voluntarily voluntar-ily furnished provisions when asked to do so. The state department since has secured se-cured information from the captain and crew of the Petrolite directly contradictory con-tradictory to the Austrian version. They have declared in affidavits that the Petrolite was stopped in the Mediterranean Med-iterranean by an Austrian submarine, which fired a number of shells at her; that the submarine commander asked for food, which the commander of the Petrolite refused to give him, and that the commander of the submarine then held one of the members of the tanker's tank-er's crew as a hostage while his men went aboard the ship and took such stores as they desired. |