The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1916. "RIDICULOUS BLUFF"

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2744, 12 April 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12, 1916. "RIDICULOUS BLUFF"

,For some time past Germany has been trying very hard to persuade the United States to affirm that armed merchantmen may be regarded as ships of war and treated as such. This means that they may be sunk without warning. Count Bernstorff and his press agents have concocted all sorts of arguments in order to convince the American public that the German protest against the arming of traders is fair and reasonable. Throughout the whole submarine controversy Germany has been laying traps, for the United States Government with the object of creating illfeeling between Britain and America..' The Germans appear to think that they have at last scored a clever point, but they will certainly discover, sooner or late'r, that this war is not going to be won by cunning controversial tricks or by other forms of Machiavellian diplomacy. At present there seems to be some uncertainty as to the attitude of tha Washington authorities as regards the'status of armed merchantmen. The Philadelphia Ledger -recently stated that "ominous intimations continue to conic from Washington as to the intentions of the' Administration .to accept tho German con'ten: tion that an armed merchantman is a warship." The Ledger goes on to say that such a decision "would be a breach of faith as well as a breach of neutrality. It would mean that the United States, after all its protests, was prepared to sanction submarine warfare upon merchantmen. It would mean'the repudiation of the principles of that. International" Law which the 'Administration has professed to champion." It ,was stated in a cablegram which we published a few days ago that the American Gov-' ernment refused to clear a French merchantman unless the French Government gave assurances that the guns she carried were'to be used only for defensive.purposes. The authority for this statement was not given, and up to the present it has been neither confirmed nor denied; but a cablegram which appears in this issue announces that, according to the New York correspondent of the Daily Mail, there is no need to fear that the American Government will show weakening over the sinking of the Sussex. A dramatic development in the. near future is predicted. Whether the subriiarine controversy will lead up to a "dramatic development" or not, it is almost inconceivable that the United States will fall in to the latest trap made' in Germany for the entanglement of unwary neutrals.

The arguments by which Germany seeks to commend her proposal to tho United States wifl not bear a moment's examination. The proposal is impudent in the extreme. Its preposterous character is well exposed by the Spectator, which points out that the German argument really amounts.to this: "We assassinated the non-combatant crews, and passengers of merchantmen on the high seas. The merchantmen armed themselves against assassination. Now that they are armed they have become ships c-f war, and we there-fore have the right to assassinate everybody on board." Not long ago Captain von Papen referred to the Americans as "these idiotic Yankees," but he and his Government will fird that they are not so "idiotic"as to allow them?, selves to bo fooled in this way. Admiral Penrose-Fitzqerald declares that the latest German demand is simply a "ridiculous Huff." In a letter to the Morning Post, he says:

Will you allow an old sailor to offer an opinion upon the subject of arming merchant ships "for defence only"? In the old sailing days it might have been possiblo-I don't say it was, but it might 'have bean—to restrict a merchant s'kin to lighting in defence only. With modem armaments it is not only impossible but absurd. Neglecting for tho moment the old saw that offenoe is the best defence, it is now—in view of modern armaments— the only defence To lay down the law that an armed merchant ship is not to fire until "after" she has been torpedoed is childish nonsense, quite unworthy even of a sane lairyer.' The latest German throat is not only audacious bluff, but ridiculous bluff. Truly, the Germans have no sense of huinoui'. If they had tl.ey would never mention the words International Law. . Satan' tahhig refuge behind the Ten Commandments would not be more grotesque

The right of a merchantman to be armed for self-protection is firmly established both by immemorial custom and positive dictates of International Law. Jefferson, the great American lawyer, has laid it down that though a merchantman may carry arms to defend in time of war, in the course of her regular commerce, this no more nukes her a privateer than a husbandman following his plough in time of war, with a Knife or pistol in his pocket, is thereby made a soldier. President Grant held the same opinion. Sir Thomas Barclay, in his-book on the Law and Usage of War, says that the arming of merchant ships for the purpose of self-defence in war time against the attack of enemy cruisers is quite distinguishable from privateering, and does, not come-under tho appuwvtlen of Tho Hague Convention as to the conversion of mer-

chant ships into war ships. If a trader carries armament intended for offensive purposes, she becomes a converted cruiser, but no one seriously imagines that our merchantmen aro armed for the purpose of hunting down Gorman submarines. Their business is to carry their cargoes safely from port to port, and anv encounters which they may have with enemy warships will certainly not be of their seeking. If they see a German submarine they know that they will bo sunk without warning unless they can escape or disable the assailant, and in using their .guns they are acting, on the defensive in the fullest sense of the word. In June last, Mr. Lansing emphatically protested against any abbreviation of the rights of American shipmasters or American citizens bound on lawful errands as passengers on merchant vessels of belligerent nationality.' The German policy of sinking armed merchantmen without notice undoubtedly involves serious abbreviation of. such rights.