The Washington herald., 1918-03-15
The Dutch Ships.

The War Trade Board produced some very crisp
examples of pure reading matter yesterday. 1t
evolved essay on German submarine policy to-
ward neutral ships, showing that "frightfulness"
has now gotten beyond the point of making
than the shalowest pretense of respecting neutral
rights Dutch, Danish and Norwegian ships are
torpedoed systematically and principle. 1t is not
that this shipping is Of indirect of conceivable
advantage to the enemy during the war; it is SIM
ply the German desire to have German shipping
show the highest possible ratio the worlds ship
ping after the is
This German policy having been established be-
yond csvil, is it matter only for the affected
trails to consider or is it matter that the nations
leagued against Germany must take into account?
Clearly the American government inclines to the
latter conclusion. Indeed, other conclusion
open to it. The neutrals themselves terrorized
by their ruthless neighbor; and thus intimidation
working exactly according to the Prussian
formula; but although the allies still shrink from
reprisals in the fullest and literal application
of the theory OF reprisal, they not without
obvious measures of selfprotection and of retalia
ton to neutralize as far as possible the latest
roIIary of the "spurlos versenkt" philosophy
One of these measures already know OF from
London-the seizure of the Dutch ships which have
been lying in allied harbors for many months Of
these vessels ninety are in New York alone, and
fully 20 per cent of the total scattered along
the Atlantic coast OF the United States For many
months the allied governments have been nego-
tiating with the Netherlands for these ships, deny
ing them clearance papers until the negotiations
were completed; but they were completed
clearly because the sinister specter of German
power stayed the hand of The Hague. One can
hardly blame Holland for refusal to invite the
fate of Belgium and of Rumania. STILL one cannot
think of her role in this situation many degrees
short of ignominious, and do not think the
Dutch themselves will to write many pages
about it in their national chronicles.
Now, the seizure of the Dutch ships is step
which should have been taken long ago 1t did
not require much diplomatic acumen to discover
the real secret of the intolerable delay that was
holding back the agreement between the allied gov
ernments and Holland to the ALLEGATION OF this
shipping. That has been perfectly apparent tor
months. The experts of London and Washington
have doubtless held back the drastic step OF seizng
the ships and thus entailing the risk OF break
with Holland until the hour when the tonnage was
urgently needed , 1t is not beyond the effrontery
of German foreign policy to demand OF Holland
that she break all relations with the allies as the
result of this seizure German submarines clandes-
timely have been using Dutch territorial waters for
more than year; if Germany can now force the
Netherlands into making her coast practically
new base for U-boat operations, the menace OF the
underwater hornets will be considerably increased;
but this phase of the status doubtless has been
fully canvassed by allied naval councils. lnasmuch
as Holland already has been browbeaten into Ger
man violation of her neutrality, the conversion OF
the whole Dutch coast into new base for marine
"frightfulness" will not make matters much worse
than they already
There is more than 100000 tons involved in
this seizure and OF these more than 100000 tons
are available for the OF the United States.
They should serve to speed up the sending OF
troops to the far-fung battle line in France