The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-14
NO TROUBLE WITH
 NEUTRALS EXPECTED
United States Has Never Relinquished Right to Issue Letters of Maruue. Ships Captured Would Be
 Released at Port
Ky PHILLIP EVERETT

oapanu' IL IS freely asserted that Germany has broken the declaration of London's provisions by fitting out mer- chant vessels as commerce destroyers and from this it is argued that Great Britain should pursue similar metho hods.
 There are undoubtedly a large num- Der of shipowners who would welcome letters or marque and reprisal and would forthwith fit out swift cruisers To search the sea for goods with Ger man or Austrian tag attached
 Trouble with the United States and other neutral nations is anticipated in some quarters if the right to capture enemy's goods under neutral flags is energetically asserted
 Thomas c. Bowles voices the argu- ment for privateering and capture of enemy goods at sea today as follows:
 I've were tricked in 1856 into con ditional renunciaticn of the right to capture our enemy's goods at sea, and thus by cutting of his sea communi- cations to condemn his population to famine prices and to reduce him to extremity.
 'The exercise of that right it was which detached from Napoleon his al- lies--especially his Russian ally brought about the expedition to Mos COW which ruined him. and left France paying 12 times as much for oversea produce as we were at the same time paying in these islands.
 Chief Strength of Navy
 'Should the present war last and We. still remain bound by the declara- ton of Paris of 1856 the strength of our navy will avail us nothing to put upon our enemy the great and deter mining stress of it's power.
 IT We would recover that power we must withdraw from the declaration It Is not treaty, nor a convention, nor surrounded by the sanctions belonging to either. It was avowedly signed by Lords Clarendon and Cowley without authority. It has never been ratified It is no part of the law of nations.
 By it We give up the right to cap ture on condition that privateering be abolished.
 Germany has now violated the con ditions on which we agreed to the declaration For she has revived prf- watering
 "'Privateers are armed ships which are fitted out by private persons and sail under commander to whom a belligerent power has granted com mission to seize and take the ships and goods by the subjects of an enemy power. That exactly describes a large number of German ships which our navy is now hunting down in many seas.
 These are not merely privateers, but having been commissioned, not as the law of nations requires in German port but upon the high seas, they rep resent not only revival of privateer- Ing but also an added outrage upon the law of nations.
 We. on our part. may therefore now freely declare ourselves no longer bound by the fragment of it that Ger many has left
 Not Only Authorized Treaty
 Even Were the declaration-as it Is not-a duly authorized treaty we should still be justified in repudiating It. For Germany has forcibly broken iRe European treaty Of 1859 whereby she herself guaranteed the indepen- uence and neutrality of Belgium: she has violated The Hague convention No ratified by herself in 1907, whereby she undertook not to move across ter ritory of a neutral power troops or ccnvoys whether of munitions or sup plies; she has grossly violated The Hague convention No. by sowing across the sea roadway at those head lands which must be passed by neutrals as well as our own ships floating mines which instead of being as the conven- ton requires so constructed as to be- come harmless one hour at most after the person who laid them has ceased to control them do not become harm- less certainly for many days.
 Are we to see all treaties and all international laws demolished by Ger many and we without lifting a hand stoned with their ruins? Are we tame " 10 see our seas sown with mines
 Are we to sit still until our soil Is invaded. our country devastated, our cities and our homesteads given to the torch. and our fellow subjects eith- CT shot down or forced to do the en- emy's work on our own roads. while we. forsooth, remain with our hands tied. without asserting our irresistible power on the seas? Are we to make war as though it were peace?
 No Trouble From U. S.
 some indeed, fear that were we to resume our right to capture enemy goods under the neutral flag we might ofiend the neutral powers. That cer- tafnly could not be true of the United States-now the chief of them For the United States has never vet acceded to the declaration of Paris; it has always maintained the right to capture 3nemy goods in neutral ships and all bee courts have Invariably affirmed that right. It therefore would be inc very last power to question the ex ercise of the right, or to object to Great Britain resuming now that with which the United States has never parted
 Moreover, it is to be remembered that the exercise of the right infliets no damage whatever upon the neutral ship in which the enemys cargo is captured. For so soon as the captured property is placed in safety, not only is the neutral shin which carried it released. but she Is also paid in fuil the freight which she would have earned had she completed her voyage The only injury done is done to the enemy and that is an injury which a really neutral neutral would never at tempt to prevent. For the obligation of the neutral AS to take no part in the war all must feel that to inter pose it's flag between the belligerents fir order to protect the property of one be1ligerent from capture by another would be to take a very effective part therein
 Should the present war be prolonged --as seems only too likely-our sue cess in it mus tat least depend upon our resumption of that right of cap- turing. enemy goods wherever found, which puts the most Irresistible and at the same time most merciful and blood : less stress upon our enemy, We must i not allow ourselves to be deprived now Of our power By resuming our right 1 of capture and by that alone. can We fully exercise 1t and shorten the war"