New Britain herald., 1915-08-04

l aims replies to the latest American representations against interferences with neutral commerce reject entirely l the contention that the Orders in l Council are illegal and justly the 1 British course as being wholly within l international law.
 l "Unsustainable either in point of l law or upon principles of international l equity" is the British reply to the American protest against the blockade l of neutral ports, with an invitation to l submit to international arbitration | any cases in which the United States l is dissatisfied with the action of Brit l ish prize courts.
 Great Britain's reply embodied in two notes on supplemental, was made public here tonight and in London ] simultaneously by agreement between l the two governments. With the notes was made public also the correspond ence over the American steamer ] Neches, seized by the British while 1 enroute from Rotterdam to the United l States with goods of German origin. All the correspondence aggregates seven thousand words.
 l Claim Conditions Changed. Changed conditions of warfare the British note contends. require new application of the principles of inter national. law. The advent of the sub- marine, the airship and the alleged atrocities by. German troops in Bel gium recited as Justification for the exercise of extreme measures The blockade is Justified on the contention that the university recognized funda- mental principle of a blockade is that belligerent is entitled to cut off .by effective means the seaborne com merce of his enemy
 l The note reiterates that Great Brit ain will continue to apply the orders complained of. although not without every effort to avoid embarrassment
 to neutrals and observes that the American statistics show that any loss
 in trade with Germany and Austria
 has been more than overbalanced by the increase of other industrial actiy- ities due to the war.
 In the general reply to the Amer Ican representations against the Or ders in Council, Sir Edward Grey, the foreign minister, addressing Ambas- sador Page, begins by expressing the hope that he may be able to convince the administration in Washington
 that the measures we have an- nounced are not only reasonable and necessary in themselves, but consti- .tute no more than an adaptation of the old principles of blockade to the peculiar circumstances with which we are confronted.'
 II need scarcely dweH,'' wrote Sir \ Edward, ion the obligations incum- bent upon the Allies to take every &1~ common enemy in view of the shock ing violation of the recognized rules and principles of civilized warfare of which he has been guilty during the present struggle
 Sir Edward then refers to atro- cities in Belgium, poisoning of wells in German Southwest Africa, use of poisonous gases against the Allied troops in Flanders and finally the sinking of the Lusitania, to show "how indispensable it is that we should leave unused no justifiable method of defending ourselves"
 Right of Belligerent.
 Coming down to the question of the Allied blockade of neutral ports the note continues:
 Tn the various notes which I have received from your excellency, the right of belligerent to establish blockade of the enemy ports is admit ted, a right which has obviously no value save insofar as is given power to belligerent to cut off the sea borne exports and imports of his en- emy. The contention which I under stand the United States government now puts forward is that if a bellig- erent is so cimcumstanced that his commerce can pass through adjacent neutral ports as easily as through ports in his own territory, his oppo- nent has no right to interfere and must restrict his measures of block ade in such a manner as to leave such avenues of commerce still open to his adversary. This is a conten- ton which his majestys government feel unable to accept and which seems to them unsustainable either in point of law or upon principles of international equity"
 They are unable to admit that a belligerent violates any fundamental principle of international law by ap- plying blockade in such a way as to cut off the enen1y's commerce with foreign countries through neutral ports, and if circumstances render such an application of the principles of blockade the only means of making it effective. The government of the United States, indeed, intinates it's readiness to take into account the great changes which have occurred in the conditions and means of naval warfare since the rules hitherto goy- erning legal blockade were formulat- ed and recognizes that the form of close blockade with it's cordon of ships in the immediate off1ng of the block aded ports is no longer practicable