The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-25 00:00:00

THE STOUPPPITGE OBSERVER.

t I
it • - (17-tt b
opt, sctuet.
• .

SATURDAY, MAY 25, 1878,

BELLIGERENTS AT SEA.

While the country is anxiously awaiting the
results of . Count Sehonvaleff's mission to.
Petersburg, the allGe-.Gel fitting out of Russito
cruisers in the ports of the United States, so
as to he ready to pounce upon our eronmeree,
should the worst come to the worst at la it, is a
matter which cannot Lill, to attract ;he iens
attention of Parliament and the country. The
people of Great Britain need net I:•ttifl very
long memories to go back a lit! le more Hew
half a generation. and recall the eilcumstances
of the escape of the Alabama. This vessel,
which had been built at Birkenhead, left the
Mersey in August, 1862, and for nearly two
years preyed upon the, commercial marine of
the United States until en Sloe:lay morning,
June 19, 1864, she was fel: in with by the man-
of-war Kearsap,-e, who attacked and sank her., off
Cherbourg. The fact- that this privateer was
constructed in England led to a very bitter
feeling and a long correspondence between the
two Goveinments, and after this had gone on
for ten years, the question in dispute was
referred to an International Court of Arbitra-
tion sitting at Geneva, and judgment was given
against us. We paid the damages, amounting,
by assessment, to three millions and a quarter
sterling ; and, in the estimation of all right-
thinking people, the removal of a standing
cause of irritation between two powerful nations
was weli worth the price which was paid for
that result.

Years have rolled away, and Great Britain
herself is in danger of being drawn into war.
At all events every preparation has been uniCe
for such a contingency; a huge. vote of creclit
has been obtained from the House of Commons,
the Reserves have been called out and Indian
troops summoned to Europe, so as to be ready
for any emergency. if there is to be war we
shall thus have made r• ady for it. It is only
common prudence,, therefore, before we are
actually engaged in hostilities, to ascertain what
a-e the obligations which we may call upon
neutral countries to fuifll, and it would be weak
to rely on more co-operation than we are la ally
entitled to claim There can be no quieeiou
that if before any actual outbreak of hostilities
between Englano and Russia, the United states
were to permit their ports to be used as a basis
of operations on an •extensive scale —if men
were collected there in large numbers, awl the
Russian Government were to be alloweei. not,
merely to purchase ships, but to use Awericau
harbours as arsenals or dockyards for Tilt ir fleet
—we should have good reason for remonstrance.
A, breath of the comity of nations would be
committed of which diplomacy might very weli
complain. It is only reasonable to assume that
in such a case the measure of respousihility
cast upon the United States would be that
shich they set up six years ago behre the
Arbitrators at Geneva. Their counsel then
maintained that our neutrality was not one of
absolute good faith, and it must be admit-tee
that to some extent appearances were against
us. The base of the naval operations of the
insurgents was, they contended transferred to,
Britieh territory, and that hut for this fact the
insurrection would have been crushed long
before it was. The ques'don for us to considei
is whether Ihe Municitial law of the United
states could or would enforce what werf
,hen insisted upon by them tea understood
obligations
• It must be recollected that all the most cogent
arguments adduced at Geneva on behalf of the
United States were derived horn the exceptional
position of the Confederates. But for the sup-
port any encourage,nent given in this country
e) the southern can,e, the counsel for the
United states argued thit the Confederacy
could not have existed as a belligerent for a
single day. But Raseia is a naval Power. in
possession of a fleet, with dockyards, arsenals,
and harbours. She has the means of taking
prizes captured at sea into ports where the
legality of their seizure could he decided by
regular tribunals. The reasons which the
, United States urged with so much effect against
us before the arbitrators courn. have little
weight with regard to any undoubtedly bona
fide belligerent provided with all the usual
means of conducting maritime warfare. No
doubt by. the third rule of the Treaty of
Washington the United States bound them-
selves. not to permit a belligerent to make use
of its parts or waters as the base of naval
operations, or for the purpose of renewing or
augmenting military supplies or arms, or the
recruitieg of men. But it was never contended
that a neutral may not open its ports to the
vessel of a belligerent for the purpose of pur-
chasing provisione or re-coaling. If in case of
war between England and Russia, the United
States were to treat both belligerents alike,
neither would have reason to complain ; but
this is just the point upon which the people of
this country are not assured. We should
probably have to trust more to swift cruisers
than to International Law for the protection of
our enormous commerce. .

The first article of the Declaration of the
Treaty of Paris that " Privateering is and re-
mains abolished," is often misconceived. To
that declaration Russia was a party, and it has
been assumed that the vessels which are being
fitted out in the United States, with a vL-w
the contingency of a war with England are,
strictly speaking, privateers. But the declara-
tion ua intended to apply to, vr:ssels owned b-;
private individuals, commanded and manned
p,ivate persons, and rommiseioned under letters
of marque. IL has no fl.p:ie;ttiou to ships which
are not fitted out from motives of personal
cupidity, .but are owned by a belligerent
nation, and are manned by is officers a7d
sailors. True, the United States have declined
to bind themselves entirely to relinquish the
use of privatevring, hut us far back as 1795
they were parlies to a Treaty declaring it to be
piracy for the s!llijects of ' neutral states to take
letters of tnarrFe from belligerents. The
nation hopes
.now that -.var ta;:y be avoided ;
but if it comes, we shall have to take care to
distinguish story I,:cv,en vcssels which are
not national b,tt le ship-, ;on'i those which are
not properly entill,4l, to be F.mncl refl. I an
attempt is made In revive privateeriug, it will
be promptly and sternly derat. with.

JLe',77
\ 4
-1? s;ot, .s., ^
I) t Hj's
0 Cisi it 0 „.)