New-York tribune., 1915-02-21

~ az the rail OF a seagolng tuBooa'
~ and viewed with chagrin and disap-
noin,nent the colorless departure
through the gateway Of New YORK Hafooi o'
,h. freight steamship Wilhelmins, on the even
ing Of January n, for Hamburg, Germany ms
EMPLOYERS. an enterprising morning journal OF
-. ro..ropolis which the freighter was now
LEAVING astern. had chartered the tug tor slSV
and had assigned him to what might nave oe'"
IN. very biggest story OF his experience
Tb. British cruiser Lancaster, dimly discern
al, through dusk and snowfall. could make
his story possible by intercepting the outgoing
,,.ss.I Al a point Seyond the three-mile neu-
.,,,;,v zone. and there seizing her as prize OF
war. bu, either by design or through her com
rnander's ignorance of the character OF the "h,
h.Irnina's cargo, the cruiser took no ollieiSi
no,ic. OF the freighter's passing 80 tne re-
,o,,., in disgust ordered the tug about ana
r.+urned 10 his Office and wrote thirty lines
/, cost his paper S. line fot some'nns "1AN-'
was scarcely news at all!
Stored in the hold Of the Wilhelmina was
s,oo 600 cargo of provisions-contraoano
nd, certain conditions defined by interna-
,;onal law and practice, as recognized ana nom
ored by Great Britain among other nauohs
Ar,;no recent wars before the present one IN
Furope. The charterers OF this vessel oenieo
through counsel in New York that the OBJECT
of her dispatch was to establish ana oerne
Eneland's present day attitude toward RUE
which she in previous international conflicts
herself aided in framing.
Press dispatches sent out from washington
~ F.bruarv said that American Ambassador
p.g. At London had informed the State De-
partment at Washington that the BRUSH gov
eminent had ordered its warships to regard
as subject 70 seizure and conhscation such car
goes as that which the Wihelmina carried
and without compensation except in the VIII
helmina's case. The British Foreign Ofhce
in a statement two days later denied this, ex-
planning that
no decision has yet been taken to depart from
previously existing rules or practice
The British Foreign Office realized that to
undertake the enforcement of step so drastic
and extreme was nothing less than an en-
deavor by England to lay down new doctrine
for neutral nations to accept arbitrarily
BY eonhscating these cargoes-and tor such
eonfiscation there is no precedent which IS
sustained by international law or custom
England reverses her own position, made
clear through her diplomatic correspondence
during the Russo Japanese and Boer wars, on
the question Of the right of exporters in neu-
trail country to send food to non-combatants
in belligerent country.
The departure Of the Wilhelmina concerned
the United States government and its rela-
tons with Great Britain, because it was the
FIRST attempt during six months Of the world
war TO export American food in an American
owned ship under an American flag and con-
signed by an American commission house for
consumption not by the German government
or It's armed forces, but by women and chill
dren and the men who are non-combatants in
Germany.
THE RIGHT TO FEED A BELLIGER-
ENT'S NON-COMBATANTS
The principle involved, from the point of
view Of the American merchant, is his right to
supply the civilian population of Germany with