Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-10-05
France Leads the World in These
Engines of War.
SHE COULD GO ''PRIVATEERING"
Steam Power Above Water and
Electric Action Below.
NEW ERA IN NAVALWA
peciai Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
PARIS, September %. 1901.
| The proposition to go privateering against
British commerce made to the European
j representatives of the Boer government by
| adventurous Individuals and companies has
had the effect, at least, to start up a new
war idea, and the revival of privateering
1 with the aid of submarine boats. which is
its essential element, may bring about in
| ternational complications of the most SEN
sational dimensions.
| This whole question OF privateering al
though so remote from modern practice as
to be almost forgotten, is so intimately
| bound up with its new solution by means
of the submarines that the practicability
Of the one depends only on the practicable
/ ity of the other.
There would have been no legal reason
at least at the beginning of hostilities-why
the Beers should not grant letters Of
marque and reprisal. Until the middle of
| the nineteenth century privateering was
| recognized element of naval warfare.
Americans need not have recalled to their
| memory the exploits of American priva-
| reers in our two wars with Great Britain.
and the bare mention of the Alabama will
serve to show how comparatively recent the
whole question is. Some of the Alabama
claims are still unpaid.
| II is true Indl most OF the great nations
! of Europe have renowned granting letters
| of marque, but this is merely by treaty
that Is. mutual agreement between the con-
| tracing parties. The United States. to
| give the most conspicuous example, has
| never entered into any of these treaties.
/ So much the more the Beers could not have
been held to be bound by them as long
Great Britain recognized them as belliger-
ents- Today the first gentlemen adventur-
ers caught privateering under the Boer
! flag would doubtless run the risk of being
| hanged as common pirates, but the ques-
| ton is none the less FACILITATING for this
| detail.
| Priyateering. then, is unlawful only Cor
| the governments that have agreed with one
another not to practice it. Until today this
restriction was considered rather decora-
| tive than practical. because priyateering
was supposed to have died a natural death
with the birth of steam navigation. 1t
! looked humane to give 1t up. and the ma
tions giving 1t up said to themselves it
would not cost much.
| In the OIden Days.
But the greatest argument was that Of
material impracticabiiity. Privateerfng was
practical when commerce and naval war
were done in sailing vessels-when prfva-
| teer could hold the sea indefinitely A
| steamship has not the same facilities 1t
| must, at short intervals. renew at least its
coal supply. The French privateers would
be signaled, one by one. in the ports to
| which they had repaired: and 1t would be
| easy for the real war cruisers of Great
| Britain to lay for them and destroy them
| How could they escape? Modern armored
| cruisers, themselves inyulnerable to the
| guns of privateers, are particularly well or
gained to give swift chase, at least for a
! short space of time. Many Of them can do
| twenty-three knots per hour. Where would
| France, for her privateer fleet find vessels
| swift enough to escape them? The swift
transatlantic liners of the other countries
| are already scheduled by their respective
governments as auxiliary cruisers They
would not be permitted to go privateering
| for another country Therefore, it has been
| argued, a privateer met by a warship is a
privateer lost because If it cannot get away
] by superior speed it must be promptly sunk
| by the warships superior artillery
For these reasons-and the last in partic-
ular-French public opinion. led by all
| French naval experts with but single ex-
| ception. has been tranquil on the head of
Frances lost right to issue letters Of maroue