Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1872-03-07
Helena, Montana, Thursday, March 7, 1872.
In. Alabama Claims Question.


,.t The Alabama Claims Question.
NEW YORK, February 27.-The Tribune
publishes an abstract of the British case SUBJ
mitted to the arbitrators at Geneva. In this
statement Her Maiesty's government CON-
plains that it has had to reply to argument
not yet presented. When that shall have
been presented and the claims of the United
States shall be defined precisely, Her Majesty's
government will exercise the right conferred
ON it by article of the treaty to submit to
the tribunal an additional or more extended
state of facts, rs the case may exact Until
comparison of the cases presented by both
parties shall determine the points really in
dispute between the two governments, it win
refrain from all discussion intended to sus-
tain its own position, and will limit itself at
present to submitting to the judgment of the
tribunal the following considerations:
AS ships, whatever may be the circum-
stances, were procured in British ports for
war purposes, and wers employed as bellig-
erent cruisers against the United States while
Great Britain herself remained neutral, these
events have been cause of displeasure and
regret to the government of Her Britanic
Majesty. This regret exists despite the fol-
lowing facts, which it must be conceded are
important, to arrive at q, just appreciation of
the question:
The vessels were procured by cunning and
clandestine means which baiiied the vigilance
of government officers Not one had the
least armament. Some had been constructed
as ordinary merchant vessels, having nothing
which would adapt them especially for war.
In number they were yeIy small; and finally,
the persons who obtained possession and con-
troll of them and employed them for bellig-
erent purposes, were themselves American
citizens, which the United States government
l,r, G.
Ously affect in the mind of every impartial
man the question relative to the responsibility
of a neutral. The government of the United
States processes to have right to pecuniary
indemnity for claims which it says resulted
from the acts of these vessels, that is to say,
warlilke operations carried on by means of
these ships by persons who had them in their
possession '.1& -'"' r4"' 'oi~t#1
1t is evident that pretension of this is such
that Her Majesty's government, animated as
it is with the most amicable sentiments tow
ards the United States, could not in virtue of
the respect it owes to its own rights and those
of neutral nations in general, consent to ad-
NIT, since it believes that it is not founded on
justice. 1t devolves on the United States to
establish the propositions it has advanced; to
state clearly and explicitly the duty or duties
on which they are based, and to demonstrate
the violations of which it complains. A charge
against sovereign government having evinc-
ed culpable negligence in the exercise of one
of the powers of sovereignty, is an i1nputa-
ton which should be sustained by strong and
solid reasons. A nation ought not to be held
responsible for a delay or omission which
! may be due simply to accident, and not to a
want of foresight or reasonable care.
-" Finally, it does not suffice to demonstrate
that an. act has been committed which the
government should have forseen. What must
be advanced and proved, is that the govern
ment failed to exercise the same amount of
care as 1t usually employs in internal affairs,
and which it may be reasonably required to
use in matters affecting internal interests and
duties. If the tribunal decides that Great
Britain has incurred any responsibility what
ever towards the United States, the question
will then arise as te what will be the just
measure and extent of that responsibility.
Her Majestys government abstains at present
from entering on this question, and reserves
for more advanced period of the discussion,
all observations that it shall determine to sub
NIT on this point in the name of Great Britain.
If claims of this kind were admitted without
reserve, a belligerent could ask to be indem-
nified by neutral for results which Justly
ought not to be laid to acts of the latter, but
should be placed 10 his own incapacity and
inactivity. .E5 at HaF
Her MaJestys government is obliged to
point out that in regard to ships, which form
the object of the preceding statement, the
United States government, or its officers,
evinced extraordinary hardness in employing
the naval forces at its command, and that If
ordinary activity were exercised to capture on
intercept these vessels, the losses of which
the United States complain to-day would have
been in great part averted. ,o gfst
Whether the decision of the tribunal is or
is not favorable to her, Great Britain is ready
to yield to the decree. She has only one
wish-that it be just. She raises only one
Professionalism it be founded on faithful
and equitable interpretation of the rights of
man, and on principles which herself and all
other Powers will not repent recognizing and
observing, either as neutrals or belligercnts,
in time to come. .-
- -zR - <gNS ~ - -n, .