Repetition by the commanders of German naval vessels of acts contravening neutral rights “must be regarded by the Government of the United States, where they effect American citizens, as deliberately unfriendly.” On July 9, a German submarine discharged a torpedo at the west-bound Cunard liner _Orduna_, narrowly missed her, rose to the surface and fired some twenty shells before the steamer got out of range. Fortunately, none of these took effect. There were American passengers on board and nothing but bad marksmanship averted another _Lusitania_ horror. Three days later, another German submarine stopped an American freight steamer, the _Leelanlaw_, and had her visited and searched by a boarding party, who reported that she was carrying contraband to Great Britain. Because the vessel could not be taken into a German port and there was no time to throw her cargo overboard, the crew were taken off and she was sunk. Here was a perfectly proper procedure, where no neutral lives had been endangered and the question of the damage to property could be settled amicably in a court of law. It was to the practice in the _Leelanlaw_ case that President Wilson referred to so hopefully in his note of July 21. Though the weeks went by without any answer from Germany, it was hoped that the Imperial government had quietly amended the orders to its submarine commanders and that no more passenger ships would be attacked without warning. But on the 19th of August, the White Star liner _Arabic_ sighted and went to the rescue of a sinking ship. This proved to be the British steamer _Dunsley_, which had been torpedoed by a German submarine. As the _Arabic_ came up and prepared to lower her boats, another torpedo from the same submarine exploded against the liner’s side, killing several of her crew and sending her to the bottom in eleven minutes. She went down within fifty miles of the resting place of the _Lusitania_. She was sunk without warning and without cause, for she had been bound to New York, with neither arms nor ammunition on board, nor had she made the slightest attempt either to escape or attack the submarine. She carried one hundred and eighty-one passengers, twenty-five of whom were Americans. Two Americans were drowned. The German government at once asked for time in which to explain, and the Imperial chancellor hinted that the commander of the submarine that sank the _Arabic_ might have “gone beyond his instructions, in which case the Imperial government would not hesitate to give such complete satisfaction to the United States as would conform to the friendly relations existing between both governments.” Great was the rejoicing on the first of September, when Ambassador von Bernstorff declared himself authorized to say to the State Department that: “Liners will not be sunk by our submarines without warning and without safety of the lives of non-combatants, provided that the liners do not try to escape or offer resistance.”