TaÌˆgliche Omaha tribuÌˆne. [volume] (Omaha, Nebr.) 1912-1926, 1916-01-08


stance, are legal or illegal.
Papers emanating from the Gov
eminent OF the United States in
Washington have no force or effect
with a captain of an English cruiser.
The certificate OF the department Of
the Government Of the United States
is OF no consequence TO him The
fall faith and credit between ma
tons upon which all international
amity rests and all hope Of ciyiliza-
ton abides docs not exist today for
any officer Of the British Govern
+, ment.
The case is even wors.. AS it
stands today, the British Government
not only disregards the certificate of
registration by a Government like
that Of the United States to the ex-
tent Of requiring its possessor to
prove before a solely British tribunal
his right to possess the certificate,
but 1t goes further; it does o give
the possessor OF the certificate a
chance to prove his right to possess
il.
The British Government does not
only require the owners OF a ship
like the Hooking to prove that they
are entitled to carry the American
flag which the American Government
has given them, but refuses to award
them an opportunity to prove that
right. Without taking the trouble
to 60 through the form Of condemns
ing the Hockey she was confiscated
by the British authorities in Halifax.
The case of the Hooking has a
clear parallel in that OF the Genesee
another humble vessel lately added
to our merchant marine. The Cen
esee is likewise the property OF the
American Transatlantic Steamship
Company. Like the Hooking. she is
a recent acquisition of the COM
pany. The G,nesee wa built in Eng
land and sailed as a British ship
under the name of Avristam. Her
British owners sold her to L. N,
Cordylis. of Andres, Greece. AS a
Greek ship she was known as the
Cordylis. She was then acquired BY
the Finland Steamship Company Of
| Copenhagen.
The American Transatlantic Steam
ship Company bought her from the
Danish owners june 1915, and re-
christened her the Genesee. Soon
after her acquisition by the Ameri-
can company she was chartered to
c. G. Blake & Co, of Cincinnati,
and loaded with a cargo of $500
tons of coal for Montevideo. She
cleared from Norfolk October Is.
An American ship, plying between
two neutral ports, she vas captured
in the Caribbean Sea by a British
cruiser and carried into the harbor
of St. Lucia. There she likewise has
been confiscated without prize court
proceedings by the British Govern
ment.
TO these two cases is to be added
that of the Kankakee, concerning
which few particulars have as yet
reached the United States. She was
a member Of the fleet to which the
Hooking and the Genesee belonged
and was on her way from a United
States port to a South American
port when off Tie mouth of the
River Plata she was on October 81
captured by the British auxiliary
cruiser Macedonia, carrie as a prize
into Port Stanley, Falkland Islands,
VINCE orders Tor her confiseation
will probably be cent.
There are seven other vessels in
the American Transatlantic fleet
which have been blaeklEted by the
British Admiralty and which will be
captured and confiscated as soon as
British cruisers are able to get hold
OF them
Two Of the blaeklisted ships, the
Manitowoc and the Muskegon, lie at
Buenos Ayres, afraid TO leave port;
another, the Allaguash, lies al Rio
under like intimidation. Thc Winnie
come is in New York harbor await
ng a cargo which nobody dares put
ION board her. ThD Ausable is at
Galveston in like case. The Maumee
is held up at Copenhagen. The
Saginaw, in Marseiiles harbor, seized
by the French.
Meanwhile, goods are accumulat-
ing at New York and other Ameri-
can ports to such an extent that rail-
roads decline to carry further con-
signments to the docks.
And this is the answer to the
American note of Oetobe- 81. 1t
took the United States Government
seven months to make up its mind
to write that note; it has taken the
British Government one month to
deliver its practical answer to it.
The Government of Great Britain
+ $ virtually set up in t c midst Of
the busy seas an arbitrary court,
claiming rnheard-of powers, and ex-
e~rcising the most tyrannous police
functions; Selling, and hauling into
the dock, as suspects, all travellers
upon the ocean highways, ant visit
ing many OF them with heavy penal
ties for unproyen, ana indeed un-
~proyable, ~offenses.
This iawless a~ssizes of the seas,
contemptuous alike of its own pre-
cedent and Of the rights to others,
scarcely stoops to the pretense Of
citing authority for its action, which
are determined solely by its brutal
will, and enforced, though indeed
largely through intimidation, by the
gigantic power of it's naval police.
The extent Of the earth's surface
over which this extraordinary court
is permitted to WELD its self-ar-
rogated jurisdiction, the magnitude
of the interests which its actions
vitality affect, and the ~supineness
.ar;ah .rL,.rh nnrn-an &c. nnL-.a