The Washington herald., 1915-11-21
Submarines and Noncombatants.

question whether it constitutes offense for
submarine, in view of the peril which inevitabl,
awaits those on board. whether or not she heave.
| to at command.
In the same issue of the Evening Post, discuss.
ing the case of the Ancona, the editor says:
There two steps in the capture of an enc
my merchantmen She must be warned; next the
safety OF her passengers and crew must be pro
vided for. When this cannot be DONE the ship
must be allowed to proceed.
But how can a submarine provide for the safety
of hundreds of passengers including women and
children? The submarine is a skulker; she is
afraid to be caught. If she were cruiser en-
gagged in such work, she could send prize crew
on board the passenger vessel, or convoy her to
port or, in a, pinch, could do the Eitel did in
the case of the Frye-dump the cargo into the sea,
dynamite the ship, and take the captain and his
wife on board, with the crew, whence, unless she
was overhauled and attacked by an enemy war
ship, they might be landed transferred to some
other vessel at sea. But the submarine, in danger
of being sighted and sunk, give only few
minutes for the passengers to take to the boats,
and, in the prevailing panic and confusion, loss
of life to say nothing of the bodily and mental
boats on the high seas, is inevitable.
The Evening Post refers to the conduct of
the cruiser Emden, which was careful of the lives
of noncombatants, and says that "the commander
of submarine rests under the same obligation"
But just because she is Submarine (which the
Emden was not) and is afraid to remain near her
victim for fear of being seen and captured herself
she cannot proceed with the deliberation required
nor has she accommodations for the passengers.
The only thing she can do, or, a rule, does for
the preservation of life, is to force the noncom-
batants take to the ships boats in the open sea-
which may prove to be a means Of destruction
rather than escape.
The Evening Post says that the German gov
ernment was informed that "the United States
could not contemplate the possibility of allowing
a submarine to sink passenger ship in such a
way as to leave her crew, and all on board of her.
to the mercy OF the in small boats.'" But
that is just what the submarine employed in such
work does, and, as rule, if she is going to keep
destroying passenger vessels, must do What
chance for life other than signaling to heave to and
giving few minutes to take to the boats, have
German submarines given since the browning in
fanny and horror of the Lusitania? And what in
luence has Germany's alleged change of proce-
dure had upon her ally? Let the Ancona answer.
ter from Germany? People" says the Evening
Post, "are forgetting what was achieved" Has
this estmabfe journal taken account of the deaths
that have followed the capture and destruction
of merchantmen, and even fishing vessels, by
since the murder of citizens on
the Falaba and the Lusitania? When the Scotch
trawlers, whose fellow countrymen took such
care OF the German prisoners, including the
wounded captain from the "Blucher" (the Scots
Fusileers turning out at his funeral to do him
honor as a brave seaman), when these fishermen
tried to save OF their nets so that they might
have something to fish with if they ever got home,
when their trawlers had been torpedoed, the in
carnate devils who had them at their mercy turned
their guns the helpless men and murdered them
in their open boats the high
What expiation has been made for the deliber
ate murder of the Americans who were of right
on the Lusitania? Does the Evening Post think
that the German government has ever admitted
that these citizens had right to be that pas
senger vessel? Was not the commander of the
the children of Germany celebrate the butchery
of the English and American children that were
sent to sudden and violent death by this flower
of "kultur" and chivalry?
AS proof of this wonderful achievement of
American diplomacy, the Evening Post refers to
the fact that in the second Lustania note our
government used strong words about the disre-
gard of law we'll of humanity which should
be shown by any commander of a submarine
who without actual resistance" or refusal to
stop, should much put the lives of those on
board in jeopardy" But, already said, the lives
Of American citizens are put in jeopardy every
time they unarmed passenger ship
whose passengers compelled to take to the
ships boats in the open to escape from death |
BY being torpedoed or drowned. 1t is only those
who have seen the rush of men, women and chill i
1ren for the boats under fear of impending DEATH
or who, without food and drink or adequate
clothing, have been exposed to the elements on
he high seas, who have any adequate idea |
If the horrors of this method of waging war on
helpless noncombatants. |
Now, when it is known that this is the fate |
hat awaits a passenger ship that is overhauled |
md signalled by submarine ought she to stop?
And if she tries to escape, is it any justification
or turning the guns the open boats as we'll
Is on the vessel herself and Aerpetrating gen.
raj massacre? !
The United States has needed navy or army 1
o shame Germany into disavowal and expia-
ion of the Lusitania holocaust. All we need is |
he sense of justice and the moral courage to tell
Germany what we think of her conduct and what |