DECLARATION OF LONDON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1609, 12 September 1916, Page 4

DECLARATION OF LONDON.

The reasons for the abandonment by the allies of the Declaration of London are set forth in the following memorandum, which has been drawn up by the British and French Governments :—“As events progressed the Germanic Powers put forth all their ingenuity to relax the pressure tightening about them and to re-open a channel for .supplies;'their devices compromised innocent neutral commerce and involved it in suspicions of enemy .agency. Moreover, the manifold developments of naval and military science, the invention of new engines of war, the concentration by the Germanic Powers of the whole body of their resources on military ends, produced conditions altogether different from those prevailing in previous naval wars. The allied Governments were forced to recognise the situation thus created and to adapt the rules of the Declaration from time to-time to meet these changing conditions. These successive modifications may, perhaps, have exposed the purpose of the allies to misconstruction; they have therefore come to the conclusion that they njust (-online themselves {simply* to applying the historic and admitted rules of the law of nations. The allies solemnly and unreservedly declare that the action of their warships, no less than the judgments of their prize courts, will continue to conform to these principles; tha't they will faithfully fulfil, their engagements, and in particular will observe the terms of all international conventions regarding the laws of war; that, mindful of the dictates of humanity, they repudiate utterly all thought of threatening the lives of non-com-batants; that they will not without cause interfere with neutral property; and that if they should, by the action of their fleets, cause damage to the interests of any merchant acting in good faith, they will always be ready to consider his claims and to grant him such redress as may be due.” _