The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-11-03

the former wars is all the more out of place since those wars were wag- ed between two single powers or at least between groups of a few powers only. When munition of war from one neutral country were supplied to one be1ligerent only it was then pos sible for the latter's enemies to apply to other neutral Countries In the present war, however, the United States of America is the only power that can be effectively considered for such supplies. This circumstance fur ther contributes to g:Ve to the eXpor- tatione of munitions of war from the Union a different and far more serf- I1ous character than the exportation of contraband has ever. had in the past. Since these N%rious facts, un- foreseen before, have. become clearly manifest in the course of the present
 war only, the Austro-Hungarian gov ernment thinks it is justified to hold the opinion that, in accordance with the last paragraph of the preamble of the XIIIth convention they should constitute a sufficient reason for
 modifying the regulations that govern the trade in contraband in the United
 States. The absolute and strict inn
 pa rtiality which the Washington Cab inet is anxious to observe, and there. fore the abStaining of any direct or Indirect assistance and support of one belligerent are undoubtedly the
 
 fence should teach that embargo in any direction should in the course of thew ar become necessary to that end, then the power concerned is jus tified to modify its former policy of applying neutrality. On the other hand the present case is wholly diff ferent from all preceding ones, it is ''novurn'' which, as pointed out above, does not come under the already Equoted Article T and therefore has to 1 be considered as a 'cas non prewu"s 1 Unforeseen case) which in accord lance with the preamble of the xIIIth Convention Cparagraph 3, has to be
 dealt with under the general princi- 1 Dfes of international law, as has al-i ready been explained.
 1 The suggestion of the Imperial Royal government concerning the supply of foodstuffs and raw ma 1 terials was likewise not based on the assumption that a neutral govern ment would be bound to compensate the advantages attained by one belli- gerent over the other by a, system of | n non-intercouFse with the former. The note of June 29th makes it clear that this suggestion was made solely for the purpose of pointing out to the Washington Cabinet which had de- clared that, as a consequence of the 1 situation created by the war, it had become impossible for the United States of America to maintain it's. trade relations with the Central Powers, that it is within the power of the Federal government to enforce such a possibility of trade relation AS a matter of fact the trade between America, and .Austria-Hungary,t at least with regard to non-contraband goods has not been stopped by the
 naval successes of Great Britain and
 her Allies, but by the unlawful deci- sions taken by the Entente Powers
 which as the Imperial and Royal gov
 errment has not failed to learn are also considered as unlawful by the government of the United States of America
 Ut is not contended that were the Washington Cabinet to fall in with. the views of the Imperial and Royal government, the trade relations of the United States aof ArnOricas with l@both groups of be1ligerents would be less unequal than they are at pres ent.. The Imperial and Royal govern
 m aent believes that an argument could
 all the less be therefrom derived against a suggestion admitted by neutral power as Justified from the
 point of view of nNutra1ity and oth4 erwise, since the Washington Cabi-
 net certainly will not consider it as
 a duty of a neutral power to render its situation toward both, belEgerents as unequal as possibre, or, when such
 a state of inequality exists to under
 
 to modify 1t.
 Whereas, the Federal government
 has understood that, according to the Imperial and Royal government, the
 exportation of arms and munitions
 is contrary to the last paragraph of
 the preamble of the XIIIth conven-
 ton, it should be emphasized that
 as already pointed aout above-the
 Imner1al and Royal government
 bases it's stand agalnst the excessive
 exportation of munitions of war on
 the End and 3rds paragraphs of said
 preamble. The reference to the last
 paragraph was made in connection
 with. the unlawful exclusion of Aus
 tria-Hungary from commercial inter
 course with America and was intend
 ed to convey the suggestion that the exclusion in itself would justify the
 issuance by the Federal government
 of laws providing for an embargo. If the impression IS correct. that the government of the United States wishes to express the opinion that the government of belligerent pow
 CT is not entitled to take up matter which is conn with the preser-'
 vation or the application of a right of a neutral power, this is evidently
 due to the fact that the Washington
 Cabinet has possibly. given a too re-
 stricted interpretation to the last
 paragraph referred to when 1t un-
 derstood it to apply only to strictly
 private rights, the preservation of
 which the Imperial and Royal gov
 ernment naturally holds to be a mat
 ter that concerns the neutral power only. As is shown by the report sub,
 nitted by the French delegate, M.
 Renault, to the full sitting of the
 Hague Conference e@ concerning the
 XIIIth convention (Deuxienne Conf. i Intern. de la Paix, actes ct doc, tome T., D. t326), the said paragraph aims at the preservation of the neutrality; a
 belligerent can therefore not be de-
 nied the right to approach a neu-
 traI country and to invoke the clause
 referred to when the question of the preservation of the rights of a neu-
 tral power has 8 bearing on the