Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1914-11-26
Tendency of Bel|igerent Pow
erS to Modify important De-
tails of Declaration of Lon
don the Cause.
GERMANY FORMALLY
CHARGES VIOLATION
United States Insists That Its
Rights Shall Be Defined by
Existing Rules of Interna-
tlonaI Law.


fsy nosn,ss Jovsssl spteisl lssssp wissi
Washington. Nov 25.--The decided
stand taken by the United states gov
ernment In refusing 10 accept piece
meal adoption OF the principles OF the
declaration of London as guide TO
commercial restrictions TO be imposed
during the European war was made
clear today at the state department
when the text Of a cablegram sent to
Ambassador Gerard at Berlin on Oc-
tober 14th last was made public.
Mr.. Gerard had communicated a
preliminary notice that Germany in
tended TO protest TO this government
against alleged violation OF the dec
laration by Great Britain and France.
The German ambassador. Count Bern
storff, called at the state department
today 10 lodge the formal complaint
and the text Of the reply cabled to
Ambassador Gerard, copies of which
went to all American diplomatic rep.
resentatives abroad. was then made
public.
1t follows:
please inform the German govern
ment that the departments sugges-
ton made to the belligerent countries
for the adoption for the sake of uni
formity of the declaration of London
as q temporary code of naval warfare
for use in the present war. has been
withdrawn because OF the Willingness
OF some of the belligerents to adopt
the declaration of London without
modification. The United states gov
ernment therefore will insist that its
rights and duties of those Of its -citi-
zens In the present war be defined by
the existing rules of International law
and the treaties of the United States
with the belligerents independently of
the provisions of the declaration and
this government will reserve the right
to enter demand or protest in every
case in which the rights and duties
mentioned above and defined by ex-
isting rules of international law ara
violated or their free exercise him
dered by the authorities of the bellig-
erent governments
The message was signed by Coun-
sellor Lansing, then acting secretary
of state.
Not Ratified by All Powers.
The declaration of London, framed
at an international conference in Lon
don from which ii drew its designa-
ffop uau doofCp al az a ,t,,lfor.., .,ox.of
procedure for war times to be recog-
nized by all powers participating in
the conference. Ii set out definite |
declarations as to what articles should
be considered contraband of war and |
defined the rights of neutral shipping. |
The declaration was generally viewed |
as marking a great advance over the /
practices the several ma
tions had applied during periods OF /
belligerency with most unsatisfactory
results to neutral shipping. It has
never been ratified. however, by all I
OF the powers which participated in
the conference The United States
Ind Germany are among the powers
which have recorded their acceptance I
,f the declaration while Great Britain
has not taken this action One article
of the declaration provides that it
shall be binding as between belliger-
snt powers only upon those by which
/ has been ratified.
Tendency 10 Modify Details.
Soon after the outbreak Of the Eu-
'opean war 1t became evident that
While they recognized in q general
way the spirit of the declaration some
If the belligerent powers intended to
INSIST upon great modification of i'm
,ortant details, basing their action
ipon the fact that they had not for
nally ratified the convention. Il
Since the declaration of war was in ,
act a compromise between the ex-
RENE views of the several govern
nents which participated in the con-
erence, high official here pointed 4
mt today that 1t would have been I
Ieither just nor fair in the opinion of {
his government to consent to any {
without the agreement of 1
II parties. On this theory the state
department. felt obliged to withdraw +,
rom It's tuftitntt 10 tne ueciHfdtOQ, (
ven before the German protest was I
eceived. :
In the course of his conversation 1
rith Ambassador Bernstorff today +,
Lansing made 1t clear that ]
n the absence Of general rules such !
S the declaration to which all parties q
ubscribed the United States govern Il
nent could deal only with specific II
tho German government I
gished 10 present where it felt this I
overnment had been remiss In the e
nlfillment of its duties as a neutral |
tate. The German bin Of protest y
resented today contains several spe- I
ific declarations, but the state de- G
artment has as yet made no reply I
. these. Il is said. however. that the I