New Britain herald., 1917-03-28
SAYS NAVY SHOULD
 TAKE UP BLOCKADE
Would Be More Effective, Beres-
 ford Tells Lords

l
 London, March 2S.-Debates on the
 blockade. during which government ] spokesmen characterized as ridiculous l a demand of Lord Charles Beresford
 that the blockade be turned over ab- l solutely to the navy. and insisted that the rights of neutrals as sovereign states must be respected. occupied the l attention Of both houses of parliament
 yesterday.
 1 Complaining that the foreign office had too much power over the navy to l the detriment of the latter, Lord l Beresford, in the House of Lords, ex- l pressed the opinion that captures of l submarines by the British feet were l not at all equivaleht. tothe rlmber of submarines tN%Ao otfmans were l launching. N He said that the loss of 225 mer- chant vessels, amounting to more than 420,000 tons, thus far in March. had resulted from war measures of the Central Powers, who he believed had l mora men and more food than had been imagined in England. With longer days and calmer weather the losses, he argued. would incerase, and SA0 PAUAC VuSut u ASdNO b4AO Ae%Nto brought home to it.
 The losses of British, allied, and neutral vessels, for February, he put
 at PSI. with an aggregate tonnage of more than 600.o00.
 Neutrals Have Their Rights. Baron Hylton. replying for the government to question concerning supplies reaching Teutonic allied C0nnfrfnc amounts of products had reached
 them from Holland and Denmark. Since the middle of. 1916, however there had been great reductions in such exports. Baron Hylton said it must be remembered that both Hol- land and Denmark were sovereign states. which. as neutrals, had their rights as we'll as the belligerents and that 1t was for the rights of neutrals that Great Britain went to war. He asserted that the war cabinet after a careful consideration of the blockade policy was satisfied that 1t was pro- ceeding along correct lines and that the policy was being efficiently
 carried out.
 Baron Emmott paid tribute to Lord Robert Cecil, the blockade min ister, for his vigorous and vigilant pol ACy AA t1LlS lAAII0I WILLIE SIll1 Ictdlu-
 ing friendly relations with neutrals. 1t
 was untrue asd mischievous. Baron
 Emmott added, to say that the Danish
 government was pro-German. eff we won this war by policy of necessity knows no laws" Baron Elm mott concluded, five should become
 PFussianized in the process and the Herman spirit would be victorious, al
 though Germany suffered defeat.'' The Marquis of Lansdowne said that had the government brushed away the
 entire procedure that had been fol-
 lowed, instead of having kept neu- trals in good humor, he believed the
 country would have had some of the
 neutrals at war with Great Britain.
 Welcome to America. Subsequently,, in the house of com-
 mons, William A. s. Hewins and Carl- yon w. Bellairs, unionists, raised the question of the effectiveness of the
 Britieh blockade and the difficulties of enforcing it. MT. Bellairs said the diff
 faculties had been largely removed
 when the United States, the most powerful and most critical neutral,''
 came in on the side of the Entente Allies.
 Lord Robert Cecil, minister of
 blockade, assured the members of the house that the closest cooperation ex- istad between the admiralty and his sdepartment, Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair, formerly in command of the
 hlockading squadron in the North sea, having been appointed to advise him a to the views of the admiralty and the
 admiralty as to the views of the for
 eign office.
 Lord Robert, in reviewing all the
 steps that had been adopted in con-
 nection with the blockade, emphasized
 the value of rationing by an agree
 ment with some body in a neutral
 country as more smooth and effective
 than compulsory rationing. He said
 the system of letters of assurance
 which had been arranged with the
 United State had been enormously im- portant in smoothing over difficulties with that country, enabling the gov- ernment to know exactly what was go ing on concerning exports from the United States to neutrals and permit ting injustice to regulate supplies to these neutrals. In his judgment the measures adopted had succeeded com- pletely in stopping overseas importa- tions into enemy countries. Lord Robert then produced num- Der of figures which he contended proved there was no leakage. He still
 felt, however, that everything neces-
 sary had not been done to complete the blockade of Germany. There was
 the question of the home product of border neutrals, which was a most
 difficult subject. He had arrived at the. conclusion that the only way to deal with this matter was by securing agreements with neutra1s to stop or diminish such trade.
 The blockade minister went at great length into the difficulties surround ing any attempt to compel neutral cnllnfriAs ff sever all trade relations