Evening star., 1921-12-23

gard to her seizure, place a prize
crew on her and, except under GER
tain exceptionable circumstances.
bring her into port where she may
1.-The rules of procedure (191O as laid
down for United States naval vessels
when exercising the right of visit and
search make no exception in favor OF
the submarine. In the early part or
the world war the German submarine
exercised this right Of visit and search
in the same manner as surface YES
sells. When sunk. the papers and crew
of merchant ships SO visited were
saved. Later, when the cases came
up in German prize court sitting on
appeal at Berlin, the responsibility of
the German government was often
acknowledged and indemnities paid.
When unlimited submarine warfare
commenced. in some cases where nee
essary evidence was produced by the
owners making claim in the prize
court, the court decided that the mat
ter was outside the pale of the prize
regulations, though it did not deny
the justice Of the claim.
Assuming that a merchant snip
may be halted by a submarine in a
legitimate fashion. it becomes difficult
because of limited personnel for the
submarine to complete the inspection.
place a prize crew on board and bring
her into port. 1t is also difficult Tor
her to take the passengers and crew
of a large prize on board should cir
cumstances warrant sinking the YES
sci. However, these remarks are ap-
plicable to small surface crafts as
well.
Submarine Is vulnerable.
During the world war, on account
of the vulnerability Of the submarine
and on account of the probability OF
its sinking the vessels it captured, the
tendency was for all merchant ships
including neutrals) to arm them =
selves against the submarine. Such
action greatly hampers the activity OF
the submarines. and tends toward IL
legal acts both by the merchant yes
sells and by the submarine. In other
words, the general tendency OF sub
marine warfare against commerce,
even though starting according TO ac-
cepted rules. was sharply toward war
fare unlimited by international law or
any humanitarian rules. This was
because the vulneraDility OF the SUD-
marine led the Germans TO assume
and declare she was entitled 10 speclai
exemptions from the accepted rules OF
warfare governing surface craft. Inc
merchant ship sank the submarine II
it came near enough: the submarine
sought and destroyed the merchant
ship without even a knowledge or ma
tionalfty or guilt.
Submarines were largely respon-
sible for the extensive arming OF mer-
chant vessels. neutral and belligerent,
during the world war. The average
merchant vessel could not hope to arm
effectively against enemy surface
combatant vessels, and. as rule. SUD
mits to visit and search without re-
sistance. Prospects of saving the snip
and certainty of safety to personnel
have caused them TO accept as the
lesser risk the visit OF beiligerent
surface vessels. When, however. as
in the world war, they met a pei
ligerent submarine. with strong
probability of being sunk by that sub
marine. the law Of self-preservation
operated and the merchant ship re-
sisted by every means in its power.
Defensive armament was almost sure
to be used extensively in an attempt
to strike first blow. The next step
was for each to endeavor to sink the
other on sight.
War on commerce by surface COM
batant craft causes change of owner
ship Of merchant vessels only. pro-
vided the surface craft does not sink
these ships. but these merchant YES
sells for the most part remain in