Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1917-07-27
Albuquerque Morning Journal Friday July 1917.

straighten out the affair and give q
'os-e eo'1s1Kass no prospect of the ship be-
'euopsM. in the near future, as the
case ,.SW tried before a prize
court. More lumiliating was the an
nouncement that the Norwegian
crew now would be brought before
German court-martial because they,
according to orders from a Norwegian
naval officer in Norwegian waters.
had hoisted the Norwegian flag.
For the first time since the war
broke out friction with one of the
belligerent nations has been discussed
openly in the legislature. In other
cases the minister of foreign affairs
has kept everything secret and been
unwilling to let the public know what
steps the Norwegian government has
taken to protect the rights of their
citizens against the now numberless
encroachments from the German
side.
All the leading politicians, in very
strong terms, condemned this last hui
ment.
The press requested that The Nor
wegian crew at once be given their
liberty and sent home il the Thorum
was not released, asserting that the
crew acted according to Norwegian
law and should not he punished in
Germany.
Socialist Paper Sarcastic.
The only paper that tried to belit-
tie the affair was the SocIaldimokra-
ten. which expressed the hope that
Germany will show justice to n
small nation not able and not willing
to sustain its rights by power"
Only few days before this, Ger
man u-boats in the Arctic ocean, off
the Norwegian coast and outside of
the danger zone" attacked small mo-
tor fishing boats, fishing for the Ger
mans and therefore provided with
German outfit, sunk some of them in
the open sea with small chances for
the crews to be saved, and in others
destroyed the motors and everything
on board, seized what they needed OF
provisions, instruments and even
money,
Nobody understands what benefit
these acts can be to the great war--to
destroy people working for the bene-
fit of Germany itself. The foreign
minister has sent some messages and
protests to Berlin without obtaining
a satisfactory explanation. And in
these very fishing districts German
agents are buying all the Norwegian
fish they can, according to the agree
ment with the government. German
boats sail safely inside the territorial
line guided by Norwegian pilots with
their cargoes of fish and provs-'
ions for Germany.
At the same time from all over Nor
way come reports of arrests of alleg
cd German spies who are sent across
the Norwegian border, Norwegian
citizens are being convicted by the
court in Bergen as paid spies for the
German gorernmsnt and sentenced to
imprisonment for not more than six
months, although II is proved that
their information to the Germans re-
garding the sailings of Norwegian
ships has caused these vessels to
be torpedoed and some of the crews
to be killed In these cases the court
acted according to the law. The
whole nation was struck aghast that
this crime against the country should
not be punished more severely. The
Germans involved were acquitted.
OF the Norwegians involved two
were captains on route steamers be-
tween Newcastle and Bergen who had
been paid to report to the German es-
pionage control In Bergen everything
they saw in England and on their way
between England and Norway.