New Britain herald., 1916-05-27
Absolutely Pure

ernment on Jan. 4, 1916. But to that protest the memorandum under ac
 knowledgment makes no reference and is entirely unresponsive.
 The Government of the United States must again insist with en- phass that the British and French Governments do not obtain rightful
 jurisdiction of ships by forcing or inducing them to visit their ports for the purpose of seizing their mails, or thereby obtain greater bell1gerent rights as to such ship than they could exercise on the high seas, for there is, in the opinion of the Government of the United States, no legal d1st1nc- ton between the seizure of malls at sea, which is announced as abandon ed, and their seizure from vessels vol- untarily or involuntarily in port.
 Substitute More Vexatious Practice.
 The British and French practice tion on the use by neutrals of he worlds highway for the transmission of correspondence. The practice ac tually followed by the Allied Powers must be said to justify the conclusion, therefore, that the announcement of Feb. IS was merely notice that one illegal practice had been abandoned to make place for the development of another more onerous and vacations in character.
 The present practice Is a violation not only of the spirit of the an nouhcement of Feb. 5 but of the rule of The Hague Convention upon which it is concededly based. Aside from this it is violation of the prior practice of nations which Great Brit ain and her allies have in the past insisted to establish and maintain, notwithstanding the statement in the mem Orandum that as late as 1907 the letters and dispatches themselves could be seized and confiscated."
 During the war between the United States and Mexico the United States forces allowed British steamers to enter and depart from the port of Vera Cruz without molesting mails in- tended for inland points. During the American civil war Lord Russell en- deavored to induce the United States to concede that "her Majesty's malls on board a private vessel should be exempted from visitation or deten- tion." This exemption of mails was urged on October, 1862, in the case of British mails on board the Adela On Oct. 31 Secretary Seward an- nounced that public mails of any or neutral power duly certi- fled or authenticated as such shall not be searched or opened, but be put as speedily as may be convenient on the way to their designated des- tination." In accordance with this announcement the Government of the United States in the case of the British steamship Peterhoff, which had been seized with her mails against the protest of her Majesty's had her mails forwarded to destination unopened.
 The same rule was followed by France, as am Nadvised, in the war of 1870; by the United States in the Spanish-Ameri- can war of 1S9S by Great Britain in the South African war, in the case of the German mail steamers Bundes- rath and General; by Japan, and sub- by Russia, in the Russo Japanese war of 1904. And even in the present war, as the mem orandum of Great Britain and France states, lu6lI Cl1cIly, I1dS dSoISCSo from the practice of interfering with neutral mails, even on board belliger- ent steamers. This is illustrated by the case of the French steamer Flor de captured by the auxiliary cruiser Prinz Ethel Friedrich, cited by the British and French Governments in support of their argument regarding parcel mails. Tn this case the letter mails Of the F'loride, amounting to IA sacks, were forwarded to their destination by the commander at the first opportunity upon arriving in the United States. It would seem, there fore. to be conclusively established that the intererences with mails Of which this Government justly com plains are wrong in principle and Tn practice.
 Important Papers Lost.
 The arbitrary methods employed by the British and French Governments have resulted most disastrously to cit izens of the United States. Import ant papers which can never be dupn- cated, or can be duplicated only with great difficulty, such as United states patents for inventions, rare docu- ments, legal papers relating to the set tlement of estates, power of attor- ney, fire insurance claims, income tax