The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-11-08
SHIP BLOCKADE
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Continued from Page One)
energies to the task, exercising always
an impartial attitude.
The note. nearly IL, 900 words in
length. was made public by agreement
between the state department and the
British foreign office. 1t carries with
it a voluminoUs appendix, giving the
text of American naval instructions is
sued in 1862 and a summary and ia
BILE showing hundreds of vessels de-
tanned by British authorities since the
beginning of the present war.
The body of the note is divided into
thirty-f five points, dealing with ali
phases of the contraband question,
seizures and detentions, prior to, as
we'll as after, the So-called blockade
was instituted, and announces that
separate communication will be sent
soon dealing particularly with the
''propriety and right of the British
government to include in their list of
contraband of war certain articles
which have been so included"
Blockade Declared Illegal.
In conclusion. after an argument on
the law and facts, Secretary Lansing
says:
"I believe it has been conclusively
shown that the methods sought to be
employed by Great Britain to obtain
and use evidence of enemy destination
of cargoes bound for neutral ports and
to impose contraband character
upon such cargoes are without justifi
cation. that the BLOCKADE, upon Wh1cn
such methods are partly founded, is
ineffective, illegal, and indefenSible;
that the judicial procedure offered as
a means of reparation for an interna
tional 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, can not submit to the cur
-tailment of it's neutral rights by these
measures, which are admittedly re-
staliatory, and therefore illegal, in con-
ception and in nature, and intended to
punish the enemies of Great Britain
for alleged illegalitieS on their part.
The United States might not be in a
position to object to them if it's inter
eStS and the interests of all neutrals
were unaffected by them, but, being
affected, it can not with com placence
suffer further subordination of its
right and interests to the plea that the
exceptional geographic position of the
enemies of Great Britain require or
justify oppressive and illegal practices
Principles of International Right.
1.-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 majesty's
government be governed, not by a pol
icy OF expediency, but by those estab-
nShed rules of international conduct
upon which Great Britain in the past
has held the United States to account
when the latter nation was a belliger-
ent engaged in a struggle for national
existence. 1t is of the highest impor-
lance to neutrals not only of the pres
ent day but of the future that the
principles of international right be
maintained unimpaired.
This task of championing the in
tegrity of neutral rights, which have
received the sanction of the civilized
world against the lawleSs conduct of
belligerents arising out of the bitter
ness of the great conflict which is now
wasting the countries of Europe, the
United States unhesitatingly assumes
and to the accomplishment of that
task it will devote it's energies, eXercis-
ing always that impartiality which
from the outbreak of the war it has