Evening star., 1940-12-25

than the right of any nation,
whether neutral or belligerent, to
seize ships and cargoes in its ports
to meet any emergency. This began
in the days of the ancient Persian
Empire, when the royal messengers
were empowered to seize any means
of conveyance needed to perform
their mission, and was taken over
by the Greeks and from the Greeks
passed to the Romans, from whom
Signor Mussolini traces his claims to
empire.
During the Middle Ages and above
all in the 17th and 18th centuries
the right of angary was extended to
shipping. During the 18th, with the
era of British maritime dominance.
this part of international law was
soft-pedaled. However, the outbreal.
OF the World War in 1914 brought
back to its fullest practice the right
of a nation to seize ships and op-
crate them. without reference to
whether the nation that took tn
ships was belligerent or tc
whether the ships themselves be-
longed to neutral.
Protest From Italy Ironic.
Protest against this ancient righ
under the law of nations comes wit.
peculiar irony from Italy. which wa
the first of the European nations II
the last war to resort to angary
For the Italian government, Will
still neutral, requisitioned in 1911
"a German merchantmen lying il
Italian ports. And the German gov
eminent made no protest.
1t is true that, a year later, wher
the Portuguese government also ex-
ercised the right of angary to seize
large number of German vessels.
Berlin declared war. But that ONLY
goes to show that whether or not {
nation considers the seizure of it,
ships as an act of war depends on its
basic foreign policy at the time of
the seizure. AS President Roosevelt
has pointed out, nations do not &c
to war for legalistic reasons.
In any case, since the German
submarine blockade of England is
being conducted without any refer
ence to the freedom of the seas or to
the law Of nations. the Nazis cannot
plead the principles of international
law against us.
so the way is open, legally speak
ing, Tor the American Government
to seize the German and italian
vessels now lying in American ports
as maritime refugees from the
British blockade. Presumably. the
best way in which to achieve the
desired results would be to sell or
lease American flag vessels TO the
British for use in the transatlantic
bridge Of boats" between North
America and Great Britain. and to
use the seized totalitarian tonnage to
replace our own ships on their usual
run. However, If we consider that
the emergency is sufficiently serious.
there is no reason under the fright
OF angary'' why we should not dis
pose OF the Nazi and Fascist ship
ping in any way which may serve to
meet that emergency.
Dictators Need No Excuse,
Whether this action would be con-
sldered an act of war by Herr Hitler
and Signor Mussolini lies entirely
up 10 them. In the past it has not
necessarily been so construed, not
even by Germany, which did not
declare war when we seized their
ships during the last war and which
ignored the similar Italian ship
seizure referred to above. The
totalitarians have never hesitated tn
declare war, with or without an
excuse, to justify their national
policy-as the fate of Norway, Den
mark, Holland, Belgium and Albania
proves. So We can rest assured that
the mere fact that we have used our
uncontested right under interna-
tlonal law to seize their ships will
not be the factor which determines
whether the axis will declare war
on us.
What 1t all boils down to is this:
II We decide that the survival of
Great Britain is our first policy of
defense we can take the axis ship
ping under our clear rights estab-
llshed by international law. If the
axis decides that 1t wants to fight
us they can select that or anything
else we may do or not do as an
excuse for a declaration of war.
Released by Consolidated News Features,
Inc.)