The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1915-11-10
The Note TO Great Britain.

The press of the nation applauds
the splendid note sent to Great
Britain a few days ago by President
Wilson anent the contraband cotton
order of that country. Without one
dissenting note. the American press,
irrespective of party affAiation or
other consideration, has approved the
attitude Of the administration in this
matter which so vitality affects the
greatest commodity produced in the
South. The question is not very
difficult one to understand and mere
| ~ involves the neutral rights of the
United States government on the
high seas. The truth Of the matter is
that Great Britain has badly abused
situation made delicate by other sit
nations, demanding attention in ad
vance Of the one thus created. The
cotton contrabaEd order or the order
in council issued by that country came
at time when the United States
government was dealing with Ger
many in most serious matter and
when it looked like diplomatic rela-
tions with that country would certain
ly be severed and perhaps worse
condition obtain President Wilson
and his advisers evidently concluded
to adjust that matter in advance of
this one and now that the situation
with Germany has assumed a more
satisfactory attitude Great Britain has
been told firmly and emphatically that
she must rescind the orders that seek
to deprive the United States govern
ment Of the time-honored rights OF
neutrals on the seas. The enormity of
the injustice of the contraband order
of Great Britain is not fully under
stood by those people who live in a
section remote from the great cotton
belt of the South. 1t is quite inn
possible to conceive of a ruling of one
nation that so vitality affects the rights
of another, as in the case here pre-
scented. In the note addressed to
Great Britain the other day, the Amer
lean government shows instance after
instance, where cargoes of cotton
shipped from the United States to
neutral ports in Europe have been
seized. confiscated and often sold by
Great Britain. II has been shown that
English prize courts, with long, tedi-
GUS procedure, have time and time
again passed upon such cargoes, while
the American cargo owners and ship
pers were without the revenue for the
cotton shipped in perfectly good faith
TO neutral customers in which Ger
mony or other central powers had no
earthly interest! The note is brim
| fun of sound logic and we are con
strained to believe that it will have
salutary effect on the situation and
that Great Britain viii speedily recog-
ni2e the justice of the American de-
mands and apply the remedy
! Incidentally it is a source of great
pleasure to observe also in the note
OF the administration a great triumph
for United States Senator Hoke Smith
of Georgia who has been the most
prominent champion this country has
had in its issue with Great Britain
in the matter. A few weeks ago, in
full.page article in the New York
Herald. Senator Smith discussed the
situation and strangely enough many
OF the points then stressed by the
senator have been included in the note
Just sent to Great Britain.
The note. like all of the state pa
pers of the Wilson administration, is
digntfed, yet firm, convincing and
manly and in the very nature of things
It is bound to appeal to the American
people,