Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-01-19
FOREIGN ANTAGONIST

TTTHATEVER may be the final at
wv titude of Great Britain with
respect to the contention of the
United States regarding the blockade
of German ports and exports, 1t is
certain that the relation of this coun-
try to England is likely to be more
strained thereby than at any other
time since the war began. If the
concessions which are TO be granted
by Germany in response to President
Wilson's protests simply lead to fur
ther trouble, then there would ap-
pear to be some excuse for the at
titude of the British press regarding
the real purpose of the German
change of tune. AS showing how the
Tight Little Isle" feels about it, the
following extract from the Pail Mall
Gazette is Illuminating:
The British Empire, which is
shedding blood and not ink for the
vindicatiop of neutral rights, has
reached a stage in the conflict
where technicalities will not be al
lowed to restrain the legitimate
use of all it's weapons of warfare.
Our right to prevent supplies from
reaching the enemy Is aDSOlutes anu
If the process assumes fresh dis
guises, It is the business of inter
national law to strip them on and
not to be fettered by the wording
of its former rescripts.
No British Government would
dare to relax its grip. on Germany
now in Difference to interests and
interested in what profit they can
make out OF the worlds agony. The
blockade in the future must be
In Of
ing will impart to it a sterner
temper than any external interfer
ence.
We appear to be getting into deeper
and still deeper water at every turn.
Our neutrality overtures have been
contemptuously rejected in some
quarters and in others have been
treated as insincere. Many grievous
errors have been made since the out
break of the war, and the attitude OF
the United States has not impressed
Germany, or England, or France, oil
any other country as that Of people
determined simply to assert theil
legitimate rights and to uphold the
honor of the country. Comments OF
the foreign press are almost uni
versally severe in the discussion oi
| the American attitude and especially
where the government at Washington
has failed to enforce the rights OF
the United States on the open seas.
"we must not claim says the
Westminster Gazette in an editorial
that the American people are on our
side in this conflict, but we find il
difficult to believe that the great
democratic people of the New World
will allow their influence to be used
to disarm the democratic people OF
the Old World in their struggle for
liberty aaginst military domination
They will be sure to look back to their
own history and remember what they
said and thought when neutrals ex-
lpected or demanded that they should
break their blockade of the Southern
States. II at this stage they threw
their weight into the scale against us
or tried TO deprive us of our principal
weapon against the Central Powers
they would be doing what they mos
hotly resented in their own case"
| Thus the situation is discussed from
/ day to day in the newspapers of the
Old World. We shall emerge from
the conflict. IL we are so successful
as TO come out of it without actua
participation in it. without a friend
lin the family Of nations and with
the envy and hatred OF those whe
khays heretofore regarded the Gnitst