Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-05-30
The Note to the Allies.

If Great Britain and France live up to their
professed regard for International law, they will
accede readily to the dema- DIS of the recent Ameri-
can note concerning their interference with neu-
trail mails. Tho methods they have practiced for
months past with serious and oftentimes irrepar-
able injury to citizens of the United States,
indefensible on any ground of recognized custom
right. The Allies admit the justice of the prin-
ciple for which 0ur Government contends; yet,
their persistence in violating il is rather remindful
of the pirate who went to sea with the Ten Com
msndments. AS the American note cogently
puts il:
Though giving assurances that they con-
slider genuine correspondence to be invola-
BILE and that they will, true to their en-
gagements, refrain from sezing and conhscat-
ing such correspondence the Allied Govern
ments proceed to deprive neutral Governments
of the benefit of these assurances by Selling
and confscating mail from vessels in port in
stead of at sea. They compel neutral ships,
without just cause, to enter their own port
they induce shipping lines through form
of duress, to send their mail ships via British
ports, or they detain all vessels merely call
ing at British ports, thus acquiring by force
unjustihable means an illegal Jurisdiction"
IL the Allied Governments were content with
reasonable inspection of mails, for the purpose of
detecting and seizing contraband merchandise
which might be hidden in parcels, there would
be no ground for complaint But they have not
paused there They have made wholesale and in
discriminate seizures of personal an. business cor
respondence which could affect in wise their mil
itary interests. and they have held such CORES
EOndence through weeks of unwarranted delay. As
a result of these arbitrary and laundering methods,
important letters and documents destined from one
Ieutral TO another have been detained and not in
frequently lost destroyed. The mail thus inter
fered with comprises legal papers relating to the
-
claims income tax returns, checks securities.
shipping documents bonahde contracts between
neutral traders and official correspondence,
such as money order lists and other matter for
warded by government departments Illustrating
the unjust and grave injury of such practices the
American note cites two typical examples:
I'm the case OF the Macnif Horticultural
Company, of New York, large shipments of
plants and bulbs from Holland frozen on
the wharves because possession could not be
obtained in the absence of documents relating
to them. which had been removed (by Brit
ish authorities) from the New Amsterdam
Oosterdyk and Rotterdam. . The Stand
ard Underground Cable Company. of Pitts
burg sent by mail a tender and specifications
for certain proposed electrical works to be
constructed in Christiania. After several
weeks of waiting, the papers having failed to
arrive. the American company told that
the bids could not be longer held open and the
contract was awarded to British competitor"
Iuterferences of this character cannot be justi-
fed on grounds of military necessity, much less by
international law and usage. II seems indeed
that in sheer careessness and stupidity British
censorship has gone out of its way to trespass on
neutral rights. The Allied Governments and the
United States agree, in the main, to the princi-
pies involved 1t is to be expected, therefore, that
the Allied Governments will conform their meth
DDS with those principles. Otherwise, they will be
untrue to their professions and unjust to their
friends.
II this sunshine is going to help the high price
Of cotton why. let It continue.