Valdez daily prospector., 1915-05-26

CT nations do, the obligation to take
 the usual precaution of visit and
 search to ascertain whether sus-
 pected merchantmen is in fact of bel | ligerent nationality or is in fact car
 rying contraband of war under neu-
 tral flag.
 The Government of the United States, therefore, desires to call the attention of the Imperial German 1 Government with the utmost earnest ness to the fact that the objection l against the trade of their enemies lies | in the practical impossibility of en- | ploying submarines in the destruc- dion of commerce without disregard ing those rules of fairness, reason, justice, and humanity which all mod ern opinion regards as imperative. It is practically impossible for the officers of submarine to visit mer- chantman at sea and examine her pa
 pers and cargo. It is practically i'm
 possible for them to make prize
 of her; and, if they cannot put a prize crew on board of her, they can not sink her without leaving her crew and all on board of her to the mercy of the sea in her small boats. These facts it is understood the lm-
 perial German Government frankly
 admit We are informed that in the
 instances of which We have spoken
 time enough for even that poor meas.
 ure of safety was not given, and ill
 at least two of the cases cited not
 so much as warning was received. Manifestly, submarines cannot be used
 against merchantmen, as the last few
 weeks have shown, without an ineyi-
 table violation of many sacred prin-
 ciples of justice and humanity.
 American citizens act within their
 indisputable rights in taking their ships and in travelling wherever their legitimate business calls them upon
 the high seas, and exercise those
 rights in what should be the we'll
 justified confidence that their lives
 will not be endangered by acts done in clear violation of universally ac
 knowledged international obligations, and certainly in the confidence that their own Government will sustain them in the exercise of their rights.
 There was recently published in the newspapers of the United States, I regret to inform the Imperial Ger man Government, a formal warning, purporting to come from the Imperial German Embassy at Washington, ad- dressed to the people of the United States, and stating, in effect, that any citizen of the United States who ex- ercised his right of free travel upon the seas would do so at his peril if his journey should take him within the zone of waters within which the Imperial German Navy was using sub- marines against the commerce of Great Britain and France, not with standing the respectful but very ear nest protest of his Government, the Government of the United States. I do not refer to this for the pur. pose of calling the attention of the Imperial German Government at this time to the surprising irregularity of communication from the Imperial German Embassy at Washington ad- dressed to the people of the United States through the newspapers, but only for the purpose of pointing out that no warning that an unlawful and inhumane act will be committed can possibly be accepted as an excuse or palliation for that act or as an abate- ment of the responsibility for it's com mission. , Long acquainted as this Govern l ment has been with the character of | the Imperial German Government and ! with the high principles of equity by | which they have in the past been ac- tuated and guided, the Government | of the United States cannot believe 1 that the commanders of the vessels | which committed these acts of law lessness did so except under a mis- l apprehension of the orders issued by ] the Imperial German naval authori- ties. It takes it for granted that, at least within the practical possibilities of every such case, the commanders even of submarines were expected to do nothing that would involve the lives of noncombatants or the safety of neutral ships, even at the cost of failing of their object of capture or destruction. It confidently expects, therefore, that the Imperial German uyi11 dicovouy tho acfc of