Following these events, conspicuous by their wantonness and violation of every rule of humanity and maritime warfare, the German Ambassador, by instructions from his Government, on September 1 gave the following assurances to the Government of the United States: "Liners will not be sunk by our submarines without warning and without safety of the lives of noncombatants, provided that the liners do not try to escape or offer resistance." [Sidenote: Germany gives assurance of regard for lives of noncombatants.] On September 9, in a reply as to the submarine attack on the _Orduna_, the German Government renewed these assurances in the following language: [Sidenote: The _Orduna_ case.] "The first attack on the _Orduna_ by a torpedo was not in accordance with the existing instructions, which provide that large passenger steamers are to be torpedoed only after previous warning and after the rescuing of passengers and crew. The failure to observe the instructions was based on an error which is at any rate comprehensible and the repetition of which appears to be out of the question, in view of the more explicit instructions issued in the meantime. Moreover, the commanders of the submarines have been reminded that it is their duty to exercise greater care and to observe carefully the orders issued." The German Government could not more clearly have stated that liners or large passenger steamers would not be torpedoed except upon previous warning and after the passengers and crew had been put in places of safety. [Sidenote: Statement about the _William P. Frye_.] On November 29 the German Government states, in connection with the case of the American vessel _William P. Frye_: [Sidenote: Germany promises to protect passengers.] "The German naval forces will sink only such American vessels as are loaded with absolute contraband, when the preconditions provided by the Declaration of London are present. In this the German Government quite shares the view of the American Government that all possible care must be taken for the security of the crew and passengers of a vessel to be sunk. Consequently the persons found on board of a vessel may not be ordered into her lifeboats except when the general conditions--that is to say, the weather, the condition of the sea, and the neighborhood of the coasts--afford absolute certainty that the boats will reach the nearest port." [Sidenote: An American Consul drowned.] Following this accumulative series of assurances, however, there seems to have been no abatement in the rigor of submarine warfare, for attacks were made in the Mediterranean upon the American steamer _Communipaw_ on December 3, the American steamer _Petrolite_ December 5, the Japanese liner _Yasaka Maru_ December 21, and the passenger liner _Persia_ December 30. In the sinking of the _Persia_ out of a total of some 500 passengers and crew only 165 were saved. Among those lost was an American Consul traveling to his post.