The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1915-11-28
THE OPEN FORUM
Era of the Great Sob" Compared With Days of
American Manhood.


It's equivalent. and not the suprems
Court, It's equivalent. has the final and
deciding say upon all cases arising under
public law: and since the outbreak Of
the present war. Just as In the Ma
poleonic wars, our British cousins are
laundering along strange. unfaniiisr, and
devious paths, paths abhorrent to the
ideals OF law held by all the English
speaking peoples. with their "orders-ir-
council" emanating from the King In
councir'-that IL to say. substituting the
for ''the law of the land"
what the U. 8. Infends.
This is being done. mainly. to throw
as much as possible OF the cost and hard
ships of the war upon the neutral state.
to foster British trade at the expsnss
of the neutral states. and. especially. to
impede as far as practicable the growth
of American commercial and interna-
tional interests. In esse. this Is every
whit as ''piraticar' as Is the brutal. bar
barous. murderous Teutonic method OF
submarine warfare-America inslstently
demands. and intends to have. both the
freedom Of the seas and the observance
Of international law upon the high seas.
to which ends. having had our eyes
thoroughly opened by both Teuton and
Briton. We are about to disregard the
"glittering generalities' of a certain
''would-be" president. and adopt the
sound and logical advice of two de-
parted actual soldier-Presidents. George
Washington and u. s. Grant: in time OF
peace. prepare for war"
Shortly before the outbreak of the
present war. but subsequent to the sign
ing OF the Declaration Of London. not
yet ratified. not yet In force a certain
Cambridge professor Of the Significantly
Teutonic name OF Oppenheim published
an able work on International law. In
this exceedingly interesting work he
takes strong ground in favor of the
continental theory that prize courts of
admiralty are in no sense international
courts: bound by International law, but
that they are strictly municipal courts.
bound by municipal law. This work was
published in the nick Of time. as it were.
to suit the present purposes OF the Brit
ish government.
II will be remembered that. up to now
the British and American courts of ad-
miralty, sitting as courts Of prize. have
uniformly upheld the doctrine that the
validity of the transfer Of an enemy
merchantmen to a neutral flag, even
after the outbreak of actual hostilities.
depends entirely. in each particular case.
upon the bona fides of the transaction.
whereas. the french practice declares
such a transaction to be void.
The Case of the Dacia-
Hence. when the case OF the Dacia be-
came acute, when she went to sea under
American registry and under the Ameri-
can flag, in view of the plain language
of Lord Stowell and OF their other ad-
miralty judges. the British admiralty
found IL convenient to have the ship
seized by a French cruiser, and carried
into a French port for adjudication The
'-piratical intent" Just the same, was TO
rob the American owner Of q ship which
the laws OF the United States, as well as
international law. declared to be an
American ship. entitled to American pro
lection Needless to say, the robbery
was duly contaminated, with nothing
stronger than verbal protests from The
American government to say it nay.
The case OF the Dacia arose too swiftly
to be grappIed with by the Teutonic or
British intellects. She was relegated. for
TO the superior 'fntelligence" Of
the French and was, very promptly CON
demned and sold as lawful prize of
war" That she now lies. Ike the Will
lam p. Frye. at the bottom of the sea-
to which bourne she has been sent By a
German cruiser. white at sea under
French colors, Is neither here nor there.
Since the 'aiaire Dacia.'' however,
some one gigantic plum-pudding intellect
of either the remarkable British cabinet,
or still more remarkable British admiral
ty, has evidently managed to get hold
of. and digest. "Oppenheim on Interna-
tional Law" The result OF this was
see. only the other day. in an "order-In-
council which directly sets aside all
the decisions of Lord StoweIl and his
brethren. all the traditional policy Of the
British government, and fatty declares
that the transfer OF enemy merchant YES
sells to the protection of neutral flags.
since the outbreak of the present war
shall be held and considered as abso-
lutely void" Here We have a plain pre-
cept OF what both the British and Arnsri-
can courts have. up TO this day. declared
to be International law. deliberately re-
versed and set aside by an 'order-in-
council
An UnfrfendIy Act.
Now. II this arbitrary "order-tn-coun-
Gill; which imposes upon the British
prize courts the duty of enforcing q
mere municipal regulation, In defiance of
Internal onal law, has any "raison d'etre"
whatsoever. that is to be found in q
deliberately conceived scheme not only
to forcibly maintain the commercial
maritime supremacy of Great Britain,
while her war fleets raid the seas. but
to hinder and impede, at all costs, the
growth and development OF an American
merchant marine. Just how the Amerf-
can administration Is going to handle the
question. remains to be seen.
II cannot reasonably be maintained
that this latest 'order-in-councIr Is any
thing. other than an ''unfriendly act to-
wards the United States
II absolutely reverses the rule repeat
eddy laid down by both British and
American courts with the transfer OF
enemy ships during war in view. and
goes much farther in the effort to re-
strict such transfers than do the proposed
rules of the Declaration OF London.
which has never been ratified and Is not
in force; and II is about to be ruthlessly