Omaha daily bee., 1917-04-22
ALLIED SECRETARY
BLAMES GERMANY
Baron Denys-Cochin Says Teu-
tons First Started Mine
Laying.
TWO METHODS COMPARED

| Correspondence OF The Associated Press.)
Paris, March Sharon Denys
Cochin, under secretary of the for
eign office in charge Of blockade qucs
tons, in talk with American CORE
spondents on the entente blockade
policy against Germany, said:
"Dr. Won Bethmann-Hollweg, the
German chancellor, and DR.. Alfred
Zimmerman, the German foreign
secretary, in their recent declarations
sought to throw upon the entente the
responsibility for a continuance OF
bloodshed. They talked of blockade
which, it was asserted, was causing
the death OF women and children. The
entente is not at all responsible for a
situation which it did not create and
which grows out OF the most un-
qualified aggression. The blockade,
such as the Germans understand it,
does not resemble in any way that
which we have organized and which
we are pursuing.
Zimmermann's View.
IN. Zimmerman complains of
the inhuman extension Great Britain
is making in the North Sea war zone
that is to say, the laying of mines to
bar the way of the submarines. But
who IS it that started to lay mines?
1t was not the allies, but Germany.
England, before the war, notably in
1907 at the Hague, showed itself hos
tile to the use of submarine mines.
Germany demanded the right to use
mines, in terms, furthermore, which
would hardly permit one to foresee
the use which it would make Of them.
From the early days of the war Ger
many spread mines in the North Sea
and elsewhere around the English
coasts in order TO intercept the COM
mercial routes. The allied admiralties
first announced the fact in order to
warn peaceful navigation and then
gave notice of retaliatory measures
which they regretfully announced
they would have to take. The laying
OF mines in open sea assuredly is
destructive to the liberty of the sea.
1t affects the innocent as much as the
neutrals.
m. Zimmerman attributes to
the entente the project of waging a
war OF determination, not only against
the armies of the central empires, but
also against women and children. The
entente powers have never had such
black designs. They want to obtain
reparation for the past, guarantees for
the future. They desire to obtain
them with the least loss and suffering
possible. They asked only to main
tam peace; attacked, they were
obliged to struggle to conquer that
peace. They hope to accomplish it
at the lowest possible cost; they wish
to compel their adversaries to yield.
They have no desire to exterminate
them. They do not profess, as does
the German manual OF instructions to
officers, that humanitarian consider
atoms such as those respecting the
care of persons and their property
can only come into question il the
nature and aim of the war permits of
it and that the only real humanity
rests frequently in the employment Of
severity
Example of Paris.
France does not believe that it is
required to renounce the use of pres
sure and constraint, the Legitimacy of
which has been admitted by all states
and notably by Germany. NJ. Zim-
mermann complains that the women
and children suffer from the obstacles
placed by the allies to the feeding of
Germany. Bismarck, did he not re-
fuse an armistice in 1870 asked for by
Jules Favre because he did not wish
to allow Paris to be reprovisioned,
which would prolong the time neces-
sary to reduce the city by faminep
And the city of Paris, was it not COM
PEELED by famine only to capitulate in
1871! Is not blockade which stops
all communication by sea recognized
IN procedure of war as lawful
IN. Zimmerman reproaches the en-
tente fer injuring indirectly women
and children who suffer from the
aearth of food, who would not suffer
any more If Germany would resign it.
self to yield as Paris did in 1871. But
Iimmermann, has he ever reproached
Germany for having quite directly in
Jured women and children of France
and Belgium, massacred by German
troops at the beginning of the war,
or Tor having them put in front of
the armies to serve as a shield? Has
he protested against the deportations
which have caused the revival of slay-
cry in country occupied by the Ger
man armies?
AS to the Blockade.
AS to this German submarine cam
p,aign, it is quite wrongfully that one
claims TO give it the name OF block
ade: Ins expression is based on an
ambiguity. There is nothing in COM
mon between blockade regulated by
International law and the measures
taken by Germany, Germany DESTROYS
Systematically the vessels and their
cargoes without regard for the lives
Of the passengers and crews, In case
o. error the crime is irreparable. The
entente operates quite the contrary.
4 limits itself to eonhscating or stop
ntnp merchandise ,a,x,:..