The Washington times., 1916-02-14
NEW ouTLAwRY Of TnH sRAS

-. Z n !.
NEW 0UTLAwRY or THE SEAS
It would appear that the German
admiralty was q long time setting its
trap for the United States, in the
matter of arming merchant ships.
The Washington Government has al
ways held to the right 10 place arms
on vessels of commerce. as a means
to protection, and there are records
Of a number Of notable fights that
such vessels have made. in the old
days Of privateering. In this regard
Britain and America stood together,
and the intimation that Washington
would insist on liners being dis
armed was the signal for a begin
ming Of divergence between the mari
time rules Of the two great powers
that on the whole have contributed
most, by acting together, toward de-
veloping modern regulations in be-
half Of civilized warfare.
The pirate was the enemy Of all
mankind, and from time immemorial
nations reserved the right to arm
their vessels of peace for defense
against pirates. In the days Of the
old buccaneerings Of the Spanish
main" It would have been folly for
merchant ship TO sail the seas with
out every reasonable means for de-
Tending itself. OF course, the con-
ditions Of that day were not quite
so bad as the Won Tirpitz school Of
twentieth-century navalism has made
them; for even in the days Of plain,
avowed piracy, the quarry was per-
mitted the right to attempt escape,
without thereby condemning himself
to sure death: Won Tirpitz has
merely gone Captain Kidd one bet
ter; the merchantmen must not try
to escape, must not be armed, and
must hope for no better fate than to
be sunk.
Before the present war started,
and before anybody save the pTotters
in Berlin knew that it was going to
be started, the German doctors Of
international law were laying the
foundation for their. present doc
trine. They had foreseen just the
set of conditions that have now
arisen; they knew that Germany
would have to make its naval war
one Of marauding with submarines
and raiders. They realized that II
would be impossible to place prize
crews on their prizes, or to take
them into German ports; therefore
1t became necessary for them to get
the sea rules warped into acquies-
cence in the sort of warfare they
would have to make.
To this end the German authori-
ties gravely began assuming, sew
eral years before the war broke out,
that merchant vessels must not be
allowed to arm. They wrote the old
doctrine out and the new doctrine
into their textbooks on maritime
law. They were determined to get
the. nations committed to this new
rule if possible; putting 1t, of course,
on the, ground of humanity" In
fact, they were planning against the
day when their cockleshell subma-
rines would be scurrying the seas,
themselves defenseless, and there
fore finding their only hope Of Sc
curity in rules Of the sea that would
make attack on them impossible.
| 1t is to such a. doctrine az this
that Berlin assumes it has commit
ted the United States. II 1t be true;
if the Washington Government, for
the sake Of the paltry indemnity
that has been promised in the Lusi-
tania case, has been induced to agree
that merchantmen may not arm
against pirates and submarine super
pirates, then indeed has Germany
won great diplomatic victory. II
is inconceivable that our Govern.
ment has been weak and simple.
minded enough to assent to such 4
monstrpus doctrine.
There never was a form Of piracy
SO horrible as the submarines EN-.
ployment in this war. 1t is simply
the assault of savagery on civiliza.
ton and peace and all common rights
Of humanity. If the United States
has submitted 70 the rule that mer
chantmen must not protect them
selves against it, then the United
States has surrendered the Who'll,
gain that civilization has achieved
from the earliest effort to formu
late a law of the sea that shonlC
preserve any form Of common rights
on the wide waters.