The Washington herald., 1917-06-10

Germany tbecause of her murders OF
Amerlcan citszenA, At sea lasted until
EN ~ restricted' campaign began In
EFFORT was being, made to safegus I'd
nlIe. the deaths incidentai TO sdbnia-
's4hei Weretare were not regarded es
ol 8 necessity tarnishing American 4
nonor Y we remained neutral SO.
apoSegfes OF amendment, after the
ltlnklng OF passetfer ships without
werntnEs he felt, mot content, but COM
sna1nea 10 kcep' out OF hostiiities;
partly because of the natural desire
on s. sevsiy ctyihEed country TO avoid
,hscspss, he Thought that 4 neutrai
america might be in a position to
Sptaotp services for the world at the
esetIlsme9t which no other power
could. sattempt, stu more because he
!aia PCT want to light on the side of
censidsrations Could not have Kept
Aim out of war III 'Germany's sea be-
hayior had been viewed IN Washing
ton as ives viewed here. propose
70, SUBSTITUTE for the familiar sum
maly o. ne submarine controversy
whole Question Of american rights
=: '. =. All Laws violated. 1.
At the beginning the United states
netieved IN the existence of interna-
tlenal. law Safeguarding wartime
eoipmerce. She found, within the
ffrst few months, that her trade with
European neutral states was being
more or less regulated by Great Brit
ain; more. rather than less, as time
psssed' Embarrassing precedents FOR
these ~ilIegalities, as we reCarded
them.. were cited by the British from
2yE cyll var, procedure, but Britain
went far beyond the lengths we had
earsd.t Mr.: John Buchan. a British
writer.i said:. THE Northern cruisers
took only c4rgoes OF absolute contra
band where the presumption of enemy
destination was unrebuttable. We took
cargoes OF conditional contraband,
fart' OF which might easily have been
used by neutral civilian industries.
and We defined conditional contraband
In way that played havoc with that
declaration of London which early in
August we had proudly declared to
oe our guide. The practical and later
! OF. London Is excused by Britain on
the ground that the instrument was
never ratified by the house of lords;
America believed the declaration to
be binding, with or without ratifica-
ton, beseuse II is was not a treaty
Of previously existing international
law (Sr Edward Grey instructed the
British delegates to the 1903 confer
ence to arrive at "a uniform defini-
tion of the main principles Of the ex-
isting law" this agreement was ar
rived at. and in their report the Brit
ish delegates stated, ''As a body,
these rules do practically amount to
=: a statement OF what Is the essence
Of the law Of nations.O
American opinion, then, held the
British blockade activities to be ille-
gal. and protested against them on
December 18th, 1914. so that when, on
February 18th. 1915, Germany an
nounced the submarine blockade as
'retaltatory measures rendered nee
essary by the means employed by
England contrary to international
law In intercepting neutral maritime
trade with Germany" 1t was irnpos-
sibi for US to deny that some excuse
existed for reprisals, and our protest
TO Germany was based largely on con-
stderations of humanity. The next
restrictive measures taken by Britain
were announced as reprisals for the
German submarine war: space and
patience forbid a further list OF the
reprtsals and counter-reprisals down
| to the present time