This is one of those cartoons in which the neutral in Raemaekers speaks
with peculiar force. Such a picture by a Britisher would reasonably be
discounted as unduly prejudiced, for it is none too easy for us in our
present stresses to see the other fellow's point of view--in this
difficult business of the blockade for an instance.
That friendly championing of the rights of neutrals suffering under the
outrageous tyranny of the British Navy is a thing to which only the
detached humour of a neutral can do justice. He can testify to the way
in which the giant strength of that navy, whether in peace or war, has
been used in the main not in the giants' tyrannous way; he can make
allowance for the exigencies which have caused occasional arbitrariness
under the stress of war or even in some untactful moment of peace; he
can contrast the two main opposing navy's notions of justice, courtesy,
seamanship--which is sportsmanship.
He can recall that no single right whether of combatant or neutral, of
state or individual, guaranteed by international law, which the Germans
have found it convenient or "necessary" to violate has been left
unviolated; that there is no single method or practice of war condemned
by the common consent of civilization but has been employed by men who
even have the candour to declare that they stand above laws and
guarantees.
And therefore he can make grim, effective fun of the sinister bandit
with his foot planted on the shackled prisoner that lies between two
murdered victims fatuously taking in vain the name of freedom.