The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1917-03-01
The Question Of the German Ships.

and the United States will soon
be at war has raised the question
of our rights to seize the German
merchant vessels now in our
ports. Such seizures have been
customary in the present war,
and indeed constituted the first
acts of hostility. Italy and Por-
tugal seized the German ships in
their harbors some time before
declaring war with Germany.
But the United States and Ger
many are bound not merely by
the general principles of interna-
tional law to refrain from such
acts, but are specifically prohibit
ed by the treaties which have ex-
listed between them from the
earliest times. The treaty of 17S5
with Prussia signed by Benjamin
Franklin, John Adams and Thom-
as Jefferson was in part carried
over to the treaty of 1899 signed
by John Quincy Adams, and this
again to the treaty of 1928 signed
|
by Henry Clay. This was held
by the Supreme Court as late as
1908 to be still in force, and when
the William P. Frye" was sunk
the German Government, in its
note of April 5, 1915, cited the
treaty AS a matter of course
binding on the prize court" The
American Government, in its re-
ply of April 2S, 1915, also affirm
ed the obligations of the exist
ing treaty stipulation between the
United States and Prussia.
The clause bearing on the point
is Article XIII of the treaty of
1928 and quoted in full in our
Story of the Week. This states
that.
If war should arise between the
two contracting parties, the mer-
chants of either country then re-
siding in the other shall be al
lowed nine months to collect their
debts and settle their affairs, and
may depart freely, carrying off
all their effects without molesta-
ton or hindrance.
Some of the newspapers are
now arguing that in case of war
a treaty ceases to be binding.
Evidently those who would re-
pudiate the provision on this
ground have not read the next
succeeding article, which says:
And it is declared that neither
the pretence that war dissolves
all treaties, nor any other what
ever, shall be considered as an
nulling or suspending this and
the next preceding article; but,
on the contrary, that the state of
war is precisely that for which
they are provided, and during
which they are to be as sacredly
observed as the most acknowl-
edged articles in the law of ma
ture and nations.
Other treaty stipulations may
automatically terminate at the
beginning of a war; this goes in
to effect only at the beginning Of
a war.
The United States and Germa-
ny, or at least Prussia, are then
under mutual obligation not to
confscate property or to intern
the persons of the other party's
nationals of either sex or any oc-
cupation for nine months after a
declaration of war. This, how
ever, would not prevent US from
imprisoning Germans who acted
as spies, conspirators or enemies,
and it would not prevent US from
Communicating their ships or
other property for military pur-
poses. In fact, Article XIII,
from which we have quoted, pro-
vides for this contingency in its
closing clause:
But if anything is necessary to
be taken from them for the use
of such armed force the same
shall be paid for at reasonable
price.
That is to say, if we needed the
ships for our navy our Govern
ment could take them over on
the same conditions as it could
the property of any citizen or
neutral. The Government would
then be under obligation to pay
the owners of the vessels, but as
a matter of fact such a claim
would be thrown in with all the