The Richfield recorder. (Richfield, Idaho) 1909-1931, 1916-06-23
WILL NOT ENDURE
SEIZURES OF MAILS
UNITED STATES NOTIFIES ENG
LAND AND FRANCE THAT LAW
LESS PRACTICES MUST STOP.
In Note Couched In Vigorous Terms
the Entente Powers Are Warned
That Only Radical Change VIII
Satisfy Americans

Washington.-The United States,
denouncing interference with neutral
mails. has notified Great Britain and
France that it can no longer tolerate
the wrongs which American citizens
have suffered and continue to suffer
through the "lawless practice" those
governments have INDUCED in, and
that only a radical change in policy,
restoring the United States to its full
rights as a neutral power, will be sat
isfactory.
This notification is given in the lat
est American communication to the
two governments, the text or which
was made public by the state depart
ment May 27. The time in which the
change must be effected is not speci-
bed, but the United States expects
prompt action.
Generous and vexatiousp abuses
which have been perpetrated by the
British and French governments in
seizing and censoring neutral mails
are recited in the communication, and
answers dIt uidut W ttlt iC6oA a. 6N
ments contained in the reply OF the
entente governments to the first
American note on the subject. Il is
vigorously set forth that not only
American commercial interests have
been injured, but rights of property
have been violated and the rules OF
international law and custom palpa-
Ii. Io6 NntfC0 &c CQrUpd
that the United States will soon press
claims against the British and French
governments for the losses which al
ready have been sustained.
The governments of the United
States. Great Britain and France ap-
pear to be in substantial agreement
as to principle" the note says. The
method of applying the principle is
the chief cause of difference.
"The government of the United
States must again insist with empha-
sis that the British and French gov
ernments do not obtain rightful Juris-
diction of ships by forcing or inducing
them to visit their ports for the pur-
pose of seizing their mails, or thereby
OBTAIN greater Dtlli6 ltul iShto 40 ~
such ships than they could exercise
on the high seas; for there is, in the
opinion of the government of the
United States, no legal distinction be.
tween the seizures of mails at sea,
which is announced as abandoned
and their seizure from vessels volun--
tarily or involuntarily in port. The
.,l. to1
to an unwarranted limitation of the
use by neutrals of the worlds high
way for the transmission of CORE
spondence.
After detailing instances of damage
suffered by Americans because of the.
detention of mails, the note concludes
as follows:
The government of the United
States and other neutral countries and
ods employed by the British and
French authorities in interrupting
mails passing between the United
tSates and other neutral countries and
between the United States and the en-
emies of Great Britain, can no longer
tolerate the wrongs which citizens of
the United States suffer and continue
to suffer through these methods. To
submit to a lawless practice of this
character would open the door to re-
peated violations of international law
by the belligerent powers on the
ground of military necessity OF which
the vioator would be the sole Judge.
Manifestly neutral nation cannot
permit its rights on the high seas to
be determined by the belligerents or
the exercise of those rights to be per-
mitted or denied arbitrarily by the
government of warning nation. The
rights of neutrals are as sacred as the
rights of the belligerents and must be
as strictly observed.
The government of the United
States, confident in the regard for in
ternational law and the rights of
neutrals which the British and French
governments have so often proclaimed
and the disregard of which they have
urged so vigorously against their en-
emies in the present war expects the
present practice of the British and
French authorities in the treatment of
mails from or to the United States to
cease and belligerent rights, as exer-'
cised, to conform to the principle gcy-
erning the passage of mail matter and
to the recognized practice of nations.
Only a radical change in the present
British and French policy. restoring
to the United States its full rights as
neutral power, will satisfy this gov
ernment"