New Britain herald., 1916-08-04

make, therefore, a o-&btt, appea, to
 German militarism-an appeal t9 Is
 prudence and an appea! to it's bru-
 tality.
 The Germans knrw that their vic
 torious fleet was useless It could be
 kept safe in harbor while the subma-
 rine warfare went on merrily outside.
 They knew that submarines cannot be
 brought to action by battleships or
 battle cruisers. They thought, there
 fore, that to these new commerce de-
 stroyers our merchant ships must fall
 an easy prey, unprotected by our ships of war and unable to protect
 themselves.
 They were wrong in both respects, and doubtless it Is their wrath at the
 skill and energy with which British
 merchant captains and British crews
 have defended the lives and property
 under their charge that has driven the German admiralty into their lat
 est and stupidest act calculated ferocity-the judicial murder of Cap tain Fryatt.
 The first lord contends that the case is not worth arguing, that it is useless to do the German military authorities the injustice of supposing they were animated by solicitude for the princi- ples of International law, and acciden- tally blundered.
 Calls Germans B1underers.
 "The illegality of their folly," he continues was of a different kind. It flowed from @ different source. They knew that Captain F'ryatt was doing his duty and they resolved at all costs to discourage imitation.
 What blunderers they are! They know how to manipulate machines but of managing men they know less than nothing. They are always wrong because they always suppose that if they behave like brLtcs they can COW their enemies into behaving like cow ards. Small Is their knowledge of our merchant seamen. I doubt whether one can be found who has not re- solved to defend himself to the last against piratical attack. But if there Is such a one, depend upon 1t. he will be cured by the last exhibition of l German civilization. And what must i neutrals think fal lthis?
 The freedom of the sea means to Germany that the German Navy Is to behave at sea as the German Army behaves on land. It means that nei- ther enemy civilians nor neutrals may possess rights against militant Germany; that those who do not re- sist will be drowned, and those who do will be shot.
 Already PA neutral merchantmen have been sunk in defiance of law and and the number daily grows. Mankind, with the expert ence of two years of war behind it, has made up its mind about German culture. It is not, I think, without material for forming a judgment } bout German freedom"
 While in the first year of the war;" says the statement, twenty proved violations of the law of rsn- ions by enemy merchantmen (firing lpon German submarines, attempts 70 ram them, etc., occurred, thirty eight such cases were reported in the year. Merchantmen owned by the Allies therefore during the two years violated in the grossest the rules of international law no less than fifty eight times against our submarines. This can be proved up to the hilt.
 "The warships of Germany's en- emies during the war have violated ,he law of nations in three particu- arly extreme cases, namely, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Crosse, the Dres- len and the Albatross. Two cases, he Baralong and the King Stephen, must be characterized not only as vlo- ations of the law of nations and | breach of the most ordinary tenets # humanity but as common murder Countless cases in which British war ships have violated international Jaw n their conduct against merchantmen owned by the central powers or ned- ,rals cannot be enumerated"
 During the second year of the war he British and their allies lost 22 varshlps of a total of 266,320 tons md Germany and her allies 10 war ships of S2,210 tons. The total losses Or the two years of the war are: Sreat Britain and her allies, 49 ships # 562,25O tons and Germany and her lllies 30 ships of 191, ,321 tons. or hese losses England alone had 40 ships of 4S5,22O tons and Germany 1o,a os e1otns of 162676 tons