New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-04-23
Is Rivalry in Mutual Destruction In
definitely to Go On?-H Gets More
and More Clear, Says the Dutch
Statesman, THAI the Question Is
"No More Some Small Dis
placement of Po0ver, but the
Continuation of Ruin of
Our Entire CviHsQti0n."

naturally answer this question III the
negative. AS basic principle Of inter
national law, the sea belongs only TO the
adjacent states, as regards the so-called
territorial water; for the rest it is res
nullius, free for all. Nobody is entitled
to be master there, or to play there the
master. The sea is open for all to navi-
gate and to fish in, and conflicts while
using the sea for these ends must be
prevented by common sea police.
The origin Of all trouble at sea is the
war fleets themselves, their mutual RI
valry, their taking and destroying of
the merchant ships of others, finally the
measures they arrogate to themselves
against the neutral ships.
FIRST STEPS TOWARD A PER-
MANENT WORLD PEACE.
A permanent world peace requires
obviously more incisive measures than
those which have been advocated by the
lnterparliamentary Union. This world
vide peace, to be lasting, can best be
brought about by the acknowledgment
and applicat: IN of the three following
principles:
/. That the sea is free, belonging to
no nation.
2. That the sea is only for the COM
mon use of all peoples for peaceful
purposes.
8. That this use and the use of straits
and maritime canals as means of access
to it be secured upon an equal footing
for every nation by an international
sea police.
An international fleet would bring to
an end the necessity of coast defence,
for attacks from the sea side would be
impossible, and the transport of military
forces would be as far as needed under
the control of the international sea po-
lice. 1t would liberate the powers who
compete for the majority at sea from
burden which is already heavy and
threatens to get unbearable if continued
in the present way.
LIBERATION FROM THE BURDEN
OF COAST DEFENCE.
The fleet would also liberate them
from a moral burden. Even more than
the war on land the present sea war
renders men inhuman. Think out in its
details the possibility of their starving
women, children and aged men, forcing
the German soldiers to lay down their
arms, to deliver their fleet and to be-
come themselves unarmed helots of
French and Russian rulers These in
human demands render inhuman those
who make them. Every Highlander who
condemns, and rightly condemns, the
present action of the submarines may
keep in mind that this form of war is
an answer to his own unjust and arbi-
trary definition of food not destined d.
rectly for armed forces as contraband.
Unless there are made new general
rules, as indicated heretofore, all states
will have to compete bon gre NAL gre
for superiority under the sea. For
none of them is this an attractive task.
Has an international regulation pro-
vidng for this police fleet chance to
be accepted? | answer with counter
question: Why not, if it is good and
relieves all peoples of heavy burden?
But will England give up her SUI
premacy on the sea by free assent? This
question England will have to answer
herself. Those who support new or
oanization which leaves England equal