GERMANY'S WARNING TO NEUTRALS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 57, 12 February 1916, Page 5

GERMANY'S WARNING TO NEUTRALS

CURRENT WAR TOPICS.

The memorandum from Germany on the position of armed merchantmen as a warning to Neutrals is not likely to have much effect. Remembering that so many fine vessels were torpedoed -without warning, with the result that precious lives were lost and valuable cargoes and ships went to the bottom of the sea, it would be almost criminal to find amusement in the latest Prussian Note. Their troubles about the Neutrals entrusting their persons and ■properties to armed merchantmen! Of course, Britain comes in for the whole blame attached to this complex question, but like produces like, and if Britain -has at times followed closely some of the methods of circumventing Hun aims and objects, Germany has only herself to thank for it. The report that British merchantmen attack the submarines under the use of false colors is an extreme . statement, at any rate, it is not supported by any account of the conflicts between the underwater craft and merchantmen that have yet reached us. The appendix to the Memorandum giving the particulars of nineteen cases in which merchantmen attacked the submarines will be very interesting, and it is sure to be the truth, of course. In commenting upon'the position, the French newspaper, Le Matin, says the memorandum is "the latest pitiful manoeuvre to mask the monstrous* illegality of Germany's barbarism!" Hear! Hear!

Reports from the West show that there is little nest for the combatants along the whole front. Bombing lias been continual in the Artois region for some days and the hours appear to be with the Allies. Two enemy attacks were repulsed west of Hill 140, while south of the Somme their at,tempt to debouch met with failure, and they were driven back". Of course, in their communique they claim certain successes, but they have been forced to admit that "the enemy north of Bacquincourt obtained a foothold in a small section of our foremost trenches." A report fiom Amsterdam further refers to the concentration of reinforcements on the Belgian frontier, troop trains passing through Louvain to Holders and Courtrai in West Flanders. The cable states that these troops a,e "mere boys" who had arrived from the Balkans. It is questionable that this is so, as in the Balkans the campaign was far too strenuous to admit of mere boys taking their place in the fighting; if the statement be substantially correct, then Germany must be shorter of reserves than we are being given to understand.

The confirmation of the naval engagement between H.M.S. Drake and the Geriftan cruiser Boon, which was reported \o have been captured together with two merchantmen off the Bermudas in the Atlantic, is being still awaited. There is certainly a ring of truth about the story, and the fact that the British Embassy at New York handed to the press the information supplied to them by two men from one of the islands, makes it appear that the authorities took the report as reliable. It is also strange, as supporting the theory of the reliability of the report, that no contradiction has come over the wires from Berlin. "Usually, these gentry do not miss many opportunities of holding up their own end of the war-stick.

Greece still maintains * her unsatisfactory state of neutrality—unsatisfactory not only to herself as a Nation, but equally embarrassing to the belligerents on all sides. -Mr Donohoe tells us that the keyi te of the statement made by the e*r/' mier, M. Skouloudis, in Parliament, wa s neutrality, arm it was claimed that the progress of events had shown that this was the best safeguard to keep the country from disaster. The

Submarines versus Armed Merchantmen Greece's Policy of Neutrality Russian Success in Galicta BREAKING DOWN A GIBRALTAR

Premier said lie hoped to be able to save Greece from the dangers menacing, her and to resist all efforts to induce her to depart from this policy. In face of the lengths to which the Government is prepared to go to accomplish this, the protests against the violation of sovereign rights involved in the occupation of Kara Burnu and Corfu are not likely to worry the Allies very much.

It is pleasing to turn to the report of an interview with M. Yesuitch, Serbian Minister, and hear his expression of thanks to France and the Allies for saving 150,000 of the Serbian Army. It is good news to hear on such an authority that the army of our plucky and suffering Ally was not altogether exterminated, a s some of the Central Powers had tried to make us believe. The activity of M. Briand and General Joffre had secured for France the. devotion of the Slavs and Gauls, while Britain and Italy had earned devotion above all praise for their part in the marvellous operation. It provides excellent reading, and wonjd provide a fine text for an article on Hope, but of this, more anon.