THE AMERICAN DEMAND UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 150, 25 June 1872, Page 4

THE AMERICAN DEMAND UPON GREAT BRITAIN.

The Cologne Gazette, referring to the claims put forth in the American case, rays : — *' Think a little on the magnitude of the sum comprised under the six heads enumerated. It is at least as much, if not more, than France must pay to Germany, for her foiled aggression, but which she consented to pay only when her armies were everywhere overthrown, her Emperor taken prisoner, her capital captured, her strongest fortressen fallen, a great part of her territory in hostile occupation, her resources and her prospects utterly destroyed — in short, when there no longer remained to her a hope of a chance for the better. Contrary to this, an equal sacrifice is demanded from England on account of disputed questions, which admit of different interpretations, and especially before the adversaries have measured their strength. It appears inconceivable. The fifth part, which demands an indemnity for the prolongation of the war, would alone impose upon the English a contribution of £400,000,000 ; for the cost of the war to the Union amounted yearly to £200,000,000, and that the struggle was prolonged two whole years by England's fault alone is a proposition which has long enjoyed wide spread credence in America. Compared with this, what is the sum of 14,000,000 dollars which is demanded as compensation for the owners of the ships and cargoes destroyed by the Southern cruisers, and which England, in her innocence, supposed would be the principal item in the American bill submitted to the Geneva Council of Arbitration ? It must be supposed that America has run up her demands so high in order that the award, even after great deductions, may still amount to a considerable sum. This may perhaps be smart, but it certainly is not dignified, nor politically judicious. Respectable individuals and respectable States, as a rule, claim only what they are entitled to, and the one merit hitherto of the Treaty of Washington was that it was designed to be an example of mutual fairness and moderation. But the example will fare ill if unjustifiable claims are put forward, not to mention if the Americans should in the end be dissatisfied with their Government should it obtain only a fraction of what it had originally demanded for the Union and its citizens Who had suffered injury. Respecting the inner justification of these claims, the English have good grounds for asking, ' You moral people, why do you not apply to us the measure of neutral duties which you have applied to yourselves in your conduct during tbe Franco-German war ? Pray, did you not a year ago sell shiploads of arms and amunition of war, by means of which Gambetta was enabled to prolong for months resistance to the German armies?' The preservation of the peace of the world and the welfare of the nation is of higher interest to us Germans than the gratification of a malicious pleasure, otherwise we could not help feeling satisfaction that the only two other countries which, for the sake of a miserable gain, supplied our enemies with the means, of stubbornly prolonging the contest have fallen out .with one another on account of a similar piece of huckstering.*'