Arizona sentinel Yuma southwest., 1916-03-02
GERMAN ANSWER ID
 AMERICAN CRITICISM
Associated Press)

|
 Ancona cases, Prof Theodor Miemey
 CT, international law expert at the
 University of Kiel, has issued bro
 chure entitled, "The Legal Basis ot
 Submarine War" In it he gives his
 reasons for believing, not only that
 such warfare is justified, but that pas
 senger vessels may be torpedoed as the Lusitania and Ancona were with
 out any infraction of existing interna
 tional law
 | Submarine warfare per SC, he ar
 gues, is allowable because it is not
 forbidden. Various restrictions placed
 upon naval warfare in general by in | ternational conventions, he declares,
 are null and void because not ratified I by all of the present combatants. The
 command of necessity" he urges, is
 another reason for the submarine. It
 has "the right and duty to do every thing that serves the wars purpose" {" He quotes Article 49 of the London
 Declaration to show that neutral prize is in danger, but that no such condi- tion is imposed in regard to enemy vessels. The inference therefore to
 be drawn is that the attacker needs no such pretense or excuse as danger to justify him in sinking his oppo-. nent's ships
 As regards the rights of passengers, the writer declares that they are not touched upon in any international agreement until the London Declara- tion, which in Article 50 says: Be fore the destruction of the ship, the persons who are on board shall Cor muSt) be removed to safety"
 On the assumption, therefore, that Article 50 was intended to read that passengers shall be placed in safety, he is of the opinion that the words, If it is possible" are to be interpo- lated or read into the paragraph. With the article in this revised form, as he is morally convinced it should be, he finds every phase of submarine warfare justifiable.
 Prof. Niemeyer opens his brochure with the following foreword:
 Ever since North American diplo- macy has sought to impair the glorious deeds of our submarines by their notes and to harm them by international complications, the anxiety that a great advantage will be torn from our hands without opposition has hung over the German people like a black cloud We hope, however, that our submarines will not be offered up on the altar of waste through halfway measures to suit foreigners. We ex- press our complete confidence in our heroic submarine commanders and | crews, with the assurance that the | German people without exception | stand behind them, filled with admira- | tion and gratitude, so long as drop of | blood still flows, so long as a hand draws the sword"
 The writer earnestly disputes the contention that international law has been smashed to bits in the present war. He maintains rather that it is, slangily expressed, bent but not nearly broken. There has not been as large 3 proportion of offenses against it, he says, as against criminal law the world over
 After presenting many reasons why he submarine might be considered un- to existing law because it Is new, he declared that this view after all is untenable and insists that | he U-boat will have to continue to operate under present statutes until lew ones are created after the war.
 He complains on the one hand that international law as it now stands is full of holes" and too elastic" but inds in these very facts justification or many of the acts of submarines. In support of his contention, he quotes many phrases which he terms vague, md which, he says, are construed in 'ne way by America, in another by England and in still a third by Ger many. In this connection, he takes lit at American jurisprudence.
 About the middle of his brochure he eemS to despair of convincing Ameri- a that he is right and Americans vrong, for he says:
 Tt is, fear, easier for a camel to ass through the eye of a needle than or genuine American really to un- erstand German, or even a Dutch nan or a Norwegian, when one of hem insists that, according to the haracter of the war, and the charac- CT of international law governing 7arfare, the true inwardness of the