New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-03-08
No Twilight Zone" of War

relations with Germany.
These difficulties are unavoidable. The
armed neutrality which the Administra-
ton seems anxious to practise is, accord
ing to any broad view of either municipal
or international law, plain contradiction
in terms. Such state can have no ele-
ments of permanency. 1t rests on concep-
tons which are mutually antagonistic and
must destroy each other. 1t tries to create
a twilight zone" between neutrality and
benigerency And twilight zones are
never more to be abhorred than in times Of
crisis, when the great needs of the hour are
clarity of thought and freedom of action.
The armed neutrality to which the Presi-
dent inclines, in so far as it is state
dcfnable under the law of nations, is based
on obsolete or nearly obsolete ideas. The
practice of arming merchantmen Is
survival from the days of piracy. Mer-
chantmen sailing under the flags of bel
ligerents still avail themselves of that
license, although their real object in arm
ing is to resist search and capture, should
they think they have fair chance to stand
off hostile man-of-war They have
right to take the risks involved in defend
ing themselves from a recognized enemy.
But the arming of neutral merchantmen
at time when pirates-and even pri-
vateers-have disappeared from the seas
involves the government doing it in an
obvious paradox. Against whom IS the
l.. L No,cecort1,, ocrofpcf
ships flying the national flag of country
with which that government is at peace.
Yet if a state of peace is admitted to exist,
the neutral merchantmen is obliged under
the rules of war at sea to submit to deten-
ton and search. She cannot lawfully re-
fuse to allow belligerent man-ofwar to
detain her and examine her cargo for con-
traband. Should she resist search she COM
mits an act of war
1t is said that the guns to be put on
American merchantmen will be used TO
repel unlawful attack. German subma-
rines are charged with engaging in piracy,
But this is mere verbal subterfuge, from
the strictly legal point of view Only
pirate can commit piracy. The German
submarine commanders have committed
many crimes at sea. They have murdered
scores of innocent and helpless Americans.
But these crimes have been committed I'M
der a national flag and under the sanction
of an organized government. They con-
stitute acts of war, not acts of piracy.
And the only rational way TO meet them is
- 10 to individual crrb-
marine commanders as pirates, but TO
make war in return on the government
whose flag they fly and whose orders
they execute.
To set up the fiction Of a war on indi-
yidual German submarine commanders
who may commit crimes against Ameri-
cans using the high seas is q cowardly
means of evading national responsibility.
II Is q plunge into twilight zone" in
which all real values, national and inter
national, become distorted and confused.
Germany made war on the United States
when she served notice that her subma-
rines would destroy without warning any
American vessels using large areas of the
Atlantic Ocean which she had declared
closed zones. Germany is now at war with
Us. She is not claiming 10 be merely dis
ciplining individual American ship cap
tains. She has announced her determine
ton to exclude our flag from the high seas,
in so far as it suits her purposes 70
exclude it.
Our government has so far simply re-
fused 20 see the facts as they are. II
wants TO remain on peace basis. to main
tain a fictitious neutrality described as
"armed," which, in so far as it is armed,
is no neutrality at all. 1t is willing 10 let
individual American ship captains go out
and take their chances defending them
selves against German submarines. But
It is unwilling 10 resent by national action
the insult to our flag and the challenge to
our rights carried in the German Ad-
miralty's warning to our ships to stay out
of the war zones under pain Of destruc-
ton or else accept humiliating safe-con-
duct through those zones on terms fixed
by Germany.
Armed neutrality is only another name
for unbelligerent belligerency. 1t IS a
fraud and farce. II might be cxcusable
under extreme circumstances 70 engage IN
II az the briefest possible temporary ex-
pedient-as an irregular and hasty transi-
ton process between peace and war. But
under any other circumstances and for any
other purposes it is an expcdient outIawed
By modern conditions, and resort to 1t Is
unworthy Of any seIf-respecting nation.
We can zee no circumstances now which
vooJd Justify the United States in taking
refuge in make-belicve mode OF war