_In a Special Danger Zone?_
THE GERMAN THREAT
Sir,--It may perhaps be desirable, for the benefit of the general
reader, to distinguish clearly between the two topics dealt with in the
recent announcement of German naval policy.
1. We find in it what may, at first sight, suggest the establishment of
a gigantic "paper blockade," such as was proclaimed in the Berlin Decree
of 1806, stating that "Les îles Britanniques sont déclarées en état de
blocus." But in the new decree the term "blockade" does not occur, nor
is there any indication of an intention to comply with the prescriptions
of the Declaration of Paris of 1856 as to the mode in which such an
operation must be conducted. What we really find in the announcement is
the specification of certain large spaces of water, including the whole
of the British Channel, within which German ships will endeavour to
perpetrate the atrocities about to be mentioned.
2. These promised, and already perpetrated, atrocities consist in the
destruction of merchant shipping without any of those decent preliminary
steps, for the protection of human life and neutral property, which are
insisted on by long established rules of international law. Under these
rules, the exercise of violence against a merchant vessel is
permissible, in the first instance, only in case of her attempting by
resistance or flight to frustrate the right of visit which belongs to
every belligerent cruiser. Should she obey the cruiser's summons to
stop, and allow its officers to come on board, they will satisfy
themselves, by examination of her papers, and, if necessary, by further
search, of the nationality of ship and cargo, of the destination of
each, and of the character of the latter. They will then decide whether
or no they should make prize of the ship, and in some cases may feel
justified in sending a prize to the bottom, instead of taking her into
port. Before doing so it is their bounden duty to preserve the ship
papers, and, what is far more important, to provide for the safety of
all on board.
This procedure seems to have been followed, more or less, by the
submarines which sank the _Durward_ in the North Sea, and several small
vessels near the Mersey, but is obviously possible to such craft only
under very exceptional circumstances. It was scandalously not followed
in the cases of the _Tokomaru_, the _Ikaria_, and the hospital ship (!)
_Asturias_, against which a submarine fired torpedoes, off Havre,
without warning or inquiry, and, of course, regardless of the fate of
those on board. The threat that similar methods of attack will be
systematically employed, on a large scale, on and after the 18th inst.,
naturally excites as much indignation among neutrals as among the Allies
of the Entente.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, February 12 (1915).
* * * * *