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Show made contingent upon our successful mediation with any of th belligerents, but the very fact that our government Seti as a mediator will place it in an unenviable position should mediation fail to accomplish good results. If the I United States agrees to act as mediator ! it must insist that Germany stop lawless law-less submarine warfare at once and without waiting for the outcome of our negotiations with Great Britain. If we do that then Germany will say that (treat Britain should suspend the blockade and the orders in council until un-til the negotiations are completed. In that ca&e our government will then only be required to convince the two countries that they should not recommence recom-mence their illegal war of reprisal upon the high seaa. At present we can only await the German proposals. It seems unlikely that they will be as favorable in reality as they are pictured in the fore-tab fore-tab ts. THE PROSPECTS. Properly speaking, the so-called concessions con-cessions of the British government to American commerce are for the most part not concessions at all. They arc modifications of certain British orders in council which are contrary to international inter-national law. The blockade established by Great Britain ir illegal. She has no right to prevent tho shipment of merchandise from neutral countries to the United States, because she has no right to blockade non-belligerent countries. By this moans she is holding up the shipment ship-ment of goods worth millions which wore purchased in Germany by American Ameri-can dealers, but which are not shipped directly from Germany to this country. Now she has assured us that cases in which "unduo hardship" ib Bhown will .be given special consideration. All of the cases are characterized by undue hardship that do not conform to the requirements re-quirements of international law. The question of contraband is, of course, quite a different problem. Great Britain hat a right to stop the shipment ship-ment of contraband when it is shown that the goods are destined for tho enemy's forces in the field. In other wiii'n it was a simple matter to distinguish dis-tinguish contraband destined for the euemy and goods intended merely for the civilian population s? a belligoront country. In this war precedents count for little. The Gerrnn government has taken over the svpplioa of the natiojp and tho British government contends, t hereto re, that anything in the nature of contraband must be considered as destined for the enemy's forces. In stopping contraband Great Britain does not rely on the law as it relates to blockade, but on the law as it relates to contraband, but even in the matter of contraband she sometimes substitutes substi-tutes orders in couucil for international law. In one respect the British government govern-ment is ablo to put the German government gov-ernment in a bad light. The British government offered to permit the shipment ship-ment of dyestuffs from Germany to the 1 1 nited States under certain restrictions. restric-tions. The government at Berlin rejected re-jected the proposal. Recently the New York World gained possession of some correspondence of Dr. Albert, chief financial agent of the German govermmeai in the United States, and was able to demonstrate by this correspondence corre-spondence that dyestuffs were being held up iu Germany for the purpose of arousing complaints against Great Britain in the United States. This, of course, did not justify Groat Britain in her illegal practices. It merely showed that both governments woro willing to indulge in sharp practice toward the United States as long as our government govern-ment should be willing to stand for it. The concessions offered by the German Ger-man government in the conduct of submarine sub-marine warfare are merely promises to abide by the rules of naval warfare. They should remove most of the fric tton between Germany and this country if they are to bo put in effect uncondi tionally, but if their enforcement is made conditional upon British action they will be of little immediate value. It will require time and considerable negotiation to compel Great Britain to abandon a blockade and general naval warfare against contraband, even though the blockade and the contraband contra-band warfare be illegal. "The British foreign office communication," communi-cation," says tho Daily Mail, "shows that Germany has forfeited all right to protest against our blockade, and Great Britain has no intention of sacrificing her legitimate naval advantage in order to assist Germany to escape the couse-quence couse-quence of her criminal practices. She! must settle with the United States as best she can at her own expense, not at ours. We will pay no blackmail." The Germans might easily paraphrase this statement, saying, "Germany has no intention of sacrificing her legitimate legiti-mate naval advantage in submarine warfare against merchantmen in order ' to help Great Britain to escape the consequences of her illegal practices. She must settle with the United States I as best she can at her own expense, not ; at ours. If both nations adopt such an irreconcilable irrecon-cilable attitude American mediation will be futile. Our offer of mediation, while generous and charitable. is fraught with danger, t is true our government has expressly repudiated the idea that American rights can be |