SEA LAW MADE IN GERMANY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1010, 28 December 1910, Page 5

SEA LAW MADE IN GERMANY.

WHAT THE DECLARATION OF LONDON MEANS.

(By H..W. Wilson, in the "Dnily.Mail.")

Mr. Gibson.Bowles may well prefix to his book, , "Sea Law and Sea Power," the legend from Selden, "Tho English people are mauy times in Treaties over-matched by them whom they over-match; in Arms." For his purpose is to protest, before it is too late, against the surrender by treaty of the. most'.vital element of our naval power—ability to. hurt the enemy an'd defend ourselves. Tho- British Government have already accepted conditions, framed l>y'tho Continental Powers, with-the aim not,, indeed, of destroying .tho British Navy, but of limiting its use 'and paralysing -its striking force. . - v Step by step, at a series of conferences; while,the nation' arid its Admiralty have (slumbered. British rights at sea have bee'u .shoi'ii. away by. foreign ' diplomacy—at .Paris.in 185 C; at The Hague in 1907; and now, by the last and worst surrender/of ail, the" Declaration of, London of 1909, .which is,to. come up . ior.'-..discussion! in Parliament in the shape of the new Naval Prize Bill. The law of nations ; is to be drastically altered '.to our disadvantage; instance' of Germany the operations of our Navy in v the time of'war.are to-.be, submitted to tho arbitrament of'a foreign international court, the judges of which will be drawn from suph great naval States as Colombia; Turkey, Paraguay, Persia, Rumania, and Haiti, To this revolution the .-British- Governrinent'.has' already agreed. .".The surrender thus made involves supersession of those ancient and famo'us Brit.ish,. coui^s, 1 the- Admiralty Prize Courts and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the abolition of their final juris-' diction in matters of naval prize, and .the submission of them and their decisions, to a new foreign court, sitting at The Hague.. British Surrenders. Let U3 take from; Mr. Bowles's: pages three examples of the manner in which the laws of naval war have been .transformed to. suit the German Admiralty jWith the timid'acquiescence of.the British foreign Offico:. ■ ;: v : -'.',l. The right_pf, blockade has,been so limited as to paralyse our fleets. Neutral ships making for .blockaded, ports may :.not be. captured "except within tho area 'of operations 1 of the warships detailed- to render ,the blockade effective." If a' .British fleot wero blockading.the German coast from Borkum ; - to Kiel, British cruisers could not capture blockade-run-ners off: the Shetlands or:in the Straits of Dover. This is an'entirely new qnd arbitrary restriction, which takes from us our advantages'of geography. Outsido a limited, narrowed, undefined, and undefinable zone the .blockade-runner is to go scot-free from any , molestation. Not .only this, , but; as-Mr. .'Bowles reminds .us, if.The Hague; Court holds that twenty ships are necejsary.,..to "render a blockade effective"'.and"one of those twenty chases a blockade-runner .and leaves her 'station off the , hostile-coast, the blockade will bo raised and everybody; will be free to enter. - '. : . .'•,;; ' v _. AVhatwere the British Government and ; Foreign Office doing to accept suoh. a rule .as this? It prevents Britain from bringing to bear .upon .-future;' enemies ' the steady pressure, .which'; crush'*l 'Napoleon and won for the: , "present- generation the British Empire..,. ....'.-.•'.'•:''-'"\' : - ■'■;■ ..: ' Contraband. :- •■•-.-- ...■.-■ ;■ ■-'.;'■' ■.-.-*.■.-.•■;.-v.:■-.. .2.; Contraband. - By a .most , -dangerous! piece' of carelessness, iriMtranslatidn the British people have been-'allowed to believe that foodstuffs; : in 'ivjr will not be contraband or. liable to seizure by hos.tile .cruisers..' As a , matter of fact, the Declaration, of London;'lays' down that where the goods aro -"addressed" to a" > trader established .in. the enemy who,-as a matter of:common knowledeo supplies-'articles , of the'kiiid L to the Inemy," they'may''be Eeizod. : As "enemv ,, ' in Irench and iu".;tho. context 'of; the' Declaration means the whole hostile na.tion it follows that all foodstuffs addressed ,to traders in British ports are liable to seizure. 7 . , ;

~ Against any such .interpretation of international law tlie British Government; .has steadily'fought in: the past, and tought witli success. Now.we make over to-foes tho right to. attack.:; our. food ■■ .'. . ■;...> ' . .■' - ■ ' At s the same time, Mr. Bowles shows that tno, door is opened wide for contraband trado between a;neutral 'and our enemies. No vessel carrying contraband ; can be condemned if the contraband is only:-half the cargo. . A neutral ship of 10,000 tons can carry, to an enemy 4000 .tons of arras and ammunition with.complete Umpunity. A Dutch vessel, for example, could convCT arms and amnuinitiou to German West Africa, provided she did not take on board : more than ■half her tonnage, of, these goods,: and we could not touch "her. . ' :'. '...; , .•.;,- ■In tho past oiir-.Courts have considered all. facts m defining'•'-contraband. All their work is now thrown , toi.the winds.A belligerent .Power.-is given the right to add any thing..that it Ijkesto the list ofcontrabandy.ln peace or,in war.' Privateering. ,<;■■:■' . ■'■■" '■'. ■ 3. Brivatecringi 'To abolish.*- this ■■■ we made immense 'surrenders in the Declarationof I'arisj fifty years- ago. By the Declaration of London it is left open to be.rp-establashod. Germany is to be left able to .■■■• ..'■■- •',, ,". . . .-■ -.' ... Authorise the, sudden ■■transformation--outside her' own" ports by , Vmore pro'auction of paper and buntingiinto a ship of war of a. ship which up'to. that trans■Jorraatioii has set forth as, nii. claimed to.be only, a merchaht'ship, entitled as such,to neutral hospitality and unlimited sufferance, and disentitled-'-to. iedrch and seizo' other, vessels on the .hifeh seas. ■Mr. Bowles shows-how" this astonishing regulation may be worked to the enormous injury of British, shipping interests/ ■Sir - Edward Grey protested,'.but did "no--thing more, arid every natioii';wenVaway froni the Conference with -the.-right-to .'.'maintain its own view.'-, v ■:■■.' 'these me onty three of.: a 'host of Run'enders, each important, each weakening our sea.power, each-.'inuring' to the advantage of our disastrous. But lest it should be though't that the British Government sought.by this Declaration. to humaaiso- naval 'war and to remove its worst ba.rbarit.ies, we have two-more surrenders,: perhaps ; themost deplorable of all. . . ■■■ By the first we admitted tho right of hostile cruisers to destroy neutral merchantmen when any . so-called military need'arises;- , A German cruiser, that is to say, if Germany is 'at war with Haiti, might sink British merchantmen' out of hand. Such a right has never before been admitted by this country. It is a gross aggravation of tho. v laws of war.Again tho Foreign Office accepted the change. : ; . • Lastly, by The Hague Convention No. 8, already ratified, the murderous and merciless submarine mine, which-- makes no' distinction bebveen neutral and enemy/ between warship and liner, may be sown anywhere at sea, with this single ridiculous -restriction, that it shall "not be placed on the coasts of an adversary with the solo purpose of intercepting commercial navigation." Well'does Mr. Bowles say that this is "manifest mockery." Yet Britain ratified it with a, reservation. ■.. .: Enough bas been said to. shqw that an act , of incredible folly would be committed in thus hampering the British Navy and forging new weapons against it at the dictation -. of tho • Continent. There is no parallel in our past history to such a surrender of British naval rights. -. ■ ■- ■ ' i -~■.,'.