The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-27

1 tinue, for the present, to refrain OF the high seas from seizing and confis. eating such correspondence letters or ! dispatches, and will insure their speed fest possible transmission as soon as the sincerity of their character shall have been ascertained.'
 Tn reply the government of the United consider that the Postal union con- ventioi' of 1906 necessarily applies to the interferences by the British and French
 gov efnments with the oversea transpor- tation of mails, of which the government of the United States complains Fur
 thernlore, the allied powers appear to
 have overlooked the admission of the
 government of the United States that
 post rarcels may be treated as mer
 chandise subject to the exercise of bel
 lisercnt rights as recognized by inter-
 national law. But the government of
 the United States does not admit that
 such parcels are subject to the exercise of the rights of police supervision, vis-
 itation and eventual seizure which be-
 longs to belligerents as to all cargoes Yn the high seas.' as asserted in the joint note under acknowledgement
 Tt is noted with satisfaction that , the British and French governments do not claim, and, in the opinion Of this government, properly do not claim, that their so-called blockade measures are sufficient grounds upon which to base a right to interfere with all classes of mail matter in transit or from the central powers
 MAIL IS INVIOLABLE
 On the contrary, their contention appears to be that as genuine corre- spondence' is under conventional stip- ulation inviolable mail ma tier of oth- CT classes is subject to detention and eAdnination While the government of the United States agrees that genuine correspondence mail is inviolable, it admits that belligerents may search oth- CT private sea-borne mails for any other purpose than to discover wheth- CT they contain articles of enemy own ership carried on belligerent vessels or articles of contraband transmitted under sealed cover as letter mail, tEougE they may intercept at sea all mails coming out of and going into ports of the enemy's coasts which are effectively blockaded. The governments of the United States, Great Britain and France, however, appear to be in sub | stantial agreement as to principle The method of applying the principle l is the chief cause of di-verenc
 Though assurances that they con- 1 Sia 1 inviolable' and that they will true 1 to the,r engagements. refrain on the ! high seas from seizing and confiscat- ing such correspondence, the allied governments proceed to deprive neu- I tral governments of the benefits of these assurances by seizing and con- 1 fiscating mail from vessels in port in
 stead of at sea. They compel neutral l ships without just cause to enter their | own ports or they induce shipping
 lines, through some form of duress,
 to send their mail ships via British ports, or they detain all vessels mere
 ly calling at British ports, thus ac- quiring by force or unjustifiable means
 an illegal Jurisdiction. Acting upon
 this enforced jurisdiction the authori
 ties remove all mails genuine corre- | spondence as we'll as post parcels, take
 them to London, where every piece. even 1 though of neutral origin and destina- | tion, is opened and critically examined | to determine the sincerity of their character in accordance with the in- | depreciation given that undefined 1 phrase by the British al/ French cen sors. Finally the eApursated remaind- l CT is forwarded, frequently after IT,
 reparable delay. to it's destination.
 SHIPS ARE DETAINED
 Ships are detained en route to or
 from the United States or to or from other neutral countries and mails are held and delayed for several days, and | in some cases for weeks and even
 months. even though not routed to
 ports of north Europe via British ports.
 his has been the procedure which has
 been practiced since the announcement of February l5 1916. To some extent
 the same practice was followed before 1 that date, calling forth the protest of 1 this government on January 1, 1916. But i to that protest the memorandum under l acknowledgment makes no reference and is entirely unresponsive. The gov
 ernment of the United States must again insist with emphasis that the British and French governments do not obtain rightful jurisdiction of ships by forcing or inducing them to visit thelr ports for the purpose of seizing their mails, or thereby obtain greater bellis- lerent rights. as to such ships than they
 tContinued on Pare Thrcel