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Show NOTE TO ENGLAND. Two classes seem to be ilinat isf ied 1 with th(! American note to Great Brit-it Brit-it i ii I'll i lishmen and (enn;ins and it must b. admitted tliat both have some i rt'axdi for their dissatisfaction. Th (ierniaii Aincri'-an in.'W.siti pers in- i dorse, all the contentions iu Hie note, but in variably they deplore the delay in calling Knglaud to account. As if to forestall such a complaint the note tdiift.s the blame to Great Britain. Secretary Sec-retary Lansing declares that the United Unit-ed States, relying on the British gov-ornmonf's gov-ornmonf's promise to minimize as much as possible the inconvenience caused by seizures and searches, believed that the l' British government intended to Conform Con-form their blockade to international law. Now that the American govern- ji ment has been convinced that the British Brit-ish government inteutls to continue its vexatious and illegal practices t a protest pro-test in the nature of an ultimatum is . I sent. fcSo forcible is the language of re- I monstrance employed in the note that , we find the Luglish press actually t whimpering about the lack of courtesy, j "In addition they declare that Great ( Britain adopted her illegal blockade in ,i reprisal for au equally and far more dangerous .blockade established by Gcr- , many through its submarine warfare. i' The arg-umeut is now without validity because our government has compelled 1 Germany to conform its submarine warfare, war-fare, so far as neutral shipping is con-; con-; cemed. to the accepted rules of naval warfare. Tf this is the strongest ar- !. gument the English have we may ex-i ex-i pcet them speedily to abaudon a blockade block-ade which has no iva rrant in i uterua-tioual uterua-tioual law or in the precedents established estab-lished by Great Britain herself in the last half century. The London Daily News is the only KngHsh paper which appears to make anything iu the form of a valid argument argu-ment for the blockade. It is a rule of international law that a blockade must J' be "effective," that is to say, it must not be pa rtial. Our government ob- i jects to the blockade because it does not operate against nil neutrals alike, i as tragic between Germany and Norway, Nor-way, Sweden and Denmark has not 1 been subjected to the interference 1, which American trade has suffered. The ; News maintains that the submarine .blockade recently established by the British navy in the Baltic sea changes ; this aspect of the case materially and . gives Great Britain good reason to , claim that the blockade ' is effective. This, however, is merely one phase of ' the .aso. The most serious objection : is the illegality practiced in search and sei.if-e. Without any- evidence and un mere suspicion Great Britain seizes our ships and takes them into her ports i where complete search is made to dis-cov dis-cov er con ti -a band. This subjects all ' i. or commerce with the neutral eoun-1 eoun-1 tries of Kurope to search and, what is still more flagrant, our goods are seized even when their ultimate desti- nation is the neutral country. '.. To support the contention that it has a right to seu.e conditional contraband even when it apparently is not going beyond the neu'ral country, the British Brit-ish government pointed out that Amrr-' Amrr-' icR tnule witli the neutral countries had increased to :m abnormal extent as compared with the trade before the I war. Secretary Lansing points out that the British govern-nent estimated tlu-it:reae tlu-it:reae in terms of monev, paving no attention ;o the fact that prices had increased because of the war. Rut the ( M rentes t a'uemen: employed by the secretary in this connection is that Lnglish trade with the same ueutral I I con n" ries has aisn i n crease 1 ahnorm;i !-I !-I iy. The a:pi:ment was employed by the . British to prove that American goods I weie being shipped from the neutral e-n:: r ry into ( ierma ny for use of the ( German arni, but it is equally erl'cctive i' in prtu ing that Knglish goods are be I ing shipped into Germany. It wa Con- sul General Ski'iner at London who dis-: dis-: co v 0 re. I this state of a ff a i rs a ml n c t -i1 tied the tluglish ioreign office by fur-' fur-' nishing our state detartmeut with ti.e data to prove the point. , Tt is not to be expected that the .! British will prove any more tractable than the Germans, especially in view j' of the fact that a treaty exists which l pfov ides for arbitration between Grent ' lirit:iin and the Lnited States. The . Ja glish ,w ill rely on this treaty to delay de-lay action ami gie them an oppor- tun i ty to con t in ne their lawdss war-fa war-fa re. Our government should not submit sub-mit to tn-ii a subterfuge and should insist in-sist that rhe illegal practices stop pending pend-ing the conclusion of the a rid t rat ion. |