The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-02-14
DEFENDS GERMAN
 USE OF U-BOATS

To the Editor of The Age-Herald. | Your editorial of the 9th inst, "The
 Case for Germany and Britain" is suffi-
 ciently personal in it's tone as to invite a
 reply from me.
 i Your answer to my question is what lawyers denominate, confession and avoidance.
 The unneutrality of the President is admitted; the defense is, Germany sunk
 the Lusitania.
 i Britain's violation of the neutral rights of this country commenced months be- l fore the Lusitania incident and the Pres { ident had protested against them with no other action upon the part of Britain ill
 reply to those protests than wordy de- fense of her invasion of our rights and I no apology.
 ! One of the most conspicuous invasions i of those rights was the proclamat ton by
 Britain of the blockade of the ports of Germany with not vessel at any port to enforce it; at the same time with a. dec- laration that foodstuffs consigned by this country for the men, women and chill dren composing the non-combatant popu- | ject to be seized upon the high seas.
 This bold violation of the law of na-
 tions was declared publicly to be adopted 1 for the express purpose of starving Ger man women and children as well as men. | The Lusitania was an armed English vessel loaded down with 5000 cases of mu- nitions. These munitions were intended l to kill German and Austrian men. Men s lives are as sacred and valuable as those of women and children. The undersea | boat is a legitimate vessel of war. Bri- tam employs them. So does our country. l Such boat meeting an enemy vessel 1 loaded with war material is bound by the laws of war under her instructions l to capture such vessel otherwise her commander would be courtmartialed | A submarine cannot take on board d host of passengers. Her commander has no choice but to order crew and passen- gers into their boats.
 A submarine cannot tow another vessel. Her commander has no alternative but ] to sink the vessel. In this case the Lusi- | tania. What the captain did was not
 done ''wantonly." He disregarded con- l sequences and loss of life only as every
 soldier does in time of war;
 General Sherman well said War is
 he'll"
 
 use of citizens of the United States as neutrals. Suppose a lot of American l tourists availing themselves of their rights as neutralS in this war, engaged 1 for transportation motor vehicle in 1 France travelling within range of German guns. It could not be contended, legally, that the shelling of that motor car by l the Germans, with the result of killing | those Americans, would be an invasion
 of Americas rights as neutral, simply because under treaties with France 1 Americans had the right to traverse l French roads,
 The high seas are only roads open to
 all. A vessel sailing under the English | flag is part of England If people ln time of war choose to embark upon armed vessels of England, loaded with war ma terial they must take the consequences of coming within reach of the guns of a German war vessel.
 1 The fact that the Lusitania was an
 English ship, carrying a gun for de- | fense, loaded with 5000 cases of munitions for England was generally known i'll this l country. The German ambassador caused warnings against sailing upon her l to be published in the New York papers. He notified the would-be passengers that
 the ship was liable to be torpedoed. 1 Our condemnation for the loss of Amer 1 ican lives by the sinking of that vessel l should be visited upon the owners who sold passage tickets to Americans and the
 husbands and fathers who compelled wives and children to be exposed to the perils of war They could have avoided those perils by choosing a neutral yes sel for their families. They were as reek- less as would be the supposed motor vehicle American travellers in France. Their women and children were victims
 of that recklessness of. their natural pro- tectors; they are not martyrs to any vio- lation by Germany of American rights as l neutrals Yours truly,
 | FREDERICK G. BROMBERG.
 Mobile, February 12, 1917