Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1915-11-09
HOLDS BRITISH BLOCKADE
NOT EFFECTIVE ONE
CONTINUED from page ~

(COnClnuou lFOm page ~
and announces that a separate com
munication will be sent soon, dealing
particularly with the "propriety and
right of tle British government to
include in their list Of contraband
of war certain articles which have
been so included"
In conclusion, after an argument on
the law and facts, Secretary Lansing
says:
Without Justification.
81 believe it has been conclusively
shown that the methods sought to be
employed by Great Britain to obtain
and use evidence of enemy destina.
ton of cargoes bound for neutral
ports and to Impose ~cOntraband
character upon such carg0es are with
out Qualifications; that the blockade,
upon which such fetnods are partly
founded is ineffective, illegal and in
defensible; that the judicial procedure
offered as a means of r%eparation for
an international injury, is inherently
defective for the purpose; and that
in many cases jurisdiction is asserted
in violation of the law Of nations. The
United States, therefore, cannot sub
nit to tie curtailment OF its neutral
rights by these measures, which are
admittedly retaliatory, and therefore
Illegal, in conception and in nature,
and intended to punish the nemies OF
Great Britain for alleged ~illegalities
on their part. The United States might
not be in a position to object to them
il its interests and the interests of all
neutrals were unaffected by them, but,
being affected, it cannot with CON
placence suffer further subordination
of it's rights and interests to the plea
that the exceptional geographic posi-
tion of the enemies Of Great Britain
require or justify oppressive and lille
gal practices.
Must Follow Law.
"The government of the United
States desires, therefore, to impress
most earnestly upon his majesty's
government that it must insist that
the relations between it and his maj
esty's government be governed, not by
a policy of expediency, but by those
established rules of international con
duct upon which Great Britain in the
past has leld the United States to &C
count when the latter nation was a
belligerent engaged in a struggle fol
national existence. It is of the high
est importance to neutrals not only Of
the present day but of the future, that
the principles Of International right
be maintained unimpaired.
"Tnis task Of championing the in,
tegrity of neutral rights, which have
received the canction Of the civilized
world against the lawless conduct o.
belligerents arising out of the bitter
less of the great conflict which is now
wasting the countries of Europe, the
United States unhesitatingly assumes
and to the accomplishment of thai
task it will devote its energies, exer
cising always that impartiality which
from the outbreak of the war it has
sought to exercise in it's relations wit.
the warning nations"
Matter Of Regret.
The note is dated October u, and
acknowledges the notes of the British
government dated January Z. Febru
airy 10, June %, July %, July 81 (two)
August 1S, and a note verbale of thu
British embassy of August 6, all Of
which relate to restrictions upon Am
erican commerce. The United States
says at the outset that it has delayed
answering these notes in the hope