- William Jennings Bryan: American Protest Over the Sinking of the Lusitania Please call on the minister of foreign affairs and, after reading to him this communication, leave him with a copy. In view of recent acts of the German authorities in violation of American rights on the high seas which culminated in the torpedoing and sinking of the British steamship Lusitania on May 7, 1915, by which ...www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bryan2.htm