SUBMARINES IN WAR

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 905, 24 February 1930, Page 9

SUBMARINES IN WAR

STRONG DESIRE TO “HUMANISE” VESSELS PROBLEM BEFORE EXPERTS United P. A.—By Telegraph—Copyright Reed. 1 p.m. LONDON, Saturday. Until the arrival of the French delegates, the London Naval Conference stands adjourned. The only progress that has been possible in the interval is the preliminary survey of certain aspects of the submarine question, which has been referred to legal experts. Speeches made at the plenary session indicated a strong desire on the part of all delegations to do what was possible to humanise the use of submarines. No question of the limitation of the size of these vessels is before these experts, who had a further informal meeting yesterday, when the Root Convention, which was signed at Washington in 1922, and which, owing to non-ratification by France, never came into operation, was taken as a starting point for their review.

The convention declared that belligerent submarines are not in any circumstances exempt from the rules applicable to surface vessels, that any submarine commander who violates any of these rules should be liable to trial and punishment for an act of piracy, and that the prohibition of the use of submarines as commerce destroyers should be universally accepted as part of the law of nations. In view of the practical impossibility of using them in this way and, at the same time, giving due protection of the lives of neutrals and noncombatants, legal experts are now considering whether any modification of these principles is considered desirable.