Editing Baralong incidents (section)

===German memorandum===
The German government delivered a memorandum on the incident via the American ambassador in Berlin, who received it on 6 December 1915. In it, they cited six US citizens as witnesses, stating they had made sworn depositions regarding the incident before [[notaries public]] in the USA.

The statements said that five survivors from ''U-27'' managed to board ''Nicosian'', while the rest were shot and killed on Herbert's orders while clinging to the merchant vessel's lifeboat falls. It was further stated that when Herbert ordered his Marines to board ''Nicosian'', he gave the order "take no prisoners". Four German sailors were found in ''Nicosian''{{'}}s engine room and propeller shaft tunnel, and were killed. According to the witness statements, ''U-27''{{'}}s commander was shot while swimming towards ''Baralong''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Memorandum of the German Government... and reply of His Majesty's Government thereto|publisher=WWW Virtual Library|url=http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/archives/texts/t050925/Baralong.html|access-date=8 December 2012|archive-date=6 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806205936/http://www.vlib.us/wwi/resources/archives/texts/t050925/Baralong.html|url-status=live}}[note: the British reply is not included]</ref>

The memorandum demanded that the captain and crew of ''Baralong'' be tried for the murder of unarmed German sailors, threatening to "take the serious decision of retribution for an unpunished crime".<ref>{{cite news|title=Baralong Case|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15635604|access-date=28 July 2013|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|date=6 January 1916|page=7}}</ref> [[Sir Edward Grey]] replied through the American ambassador that the incident could be grouped together with three "German crimes" that also took place within 48 hours: the Germans' sinking of SS ''Arabic'', [[HMS E13|their attack on a stranded British submarine]] on the neutral Danish coast, and their attack on the crew of the steamship ''Ruel'' after they had abandoned ship,<ref>{{cite book|volume=2|pp = 33-34| title=History of the Great War - The Merchant Navy|first = Archibald |last=Hurd| year = 1924}}</ref> and suggested that they be placed before a tribunal composed of US Navy officers.<ref name=peoplescollect/> This was rejected by German authorities.<ref name=reg>Hesperides 2007, pp. 58–59.</ref>