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Show BRITONS CONCUR IN VIEW OFAMERICANS NEUTRAL COMMERCE SHOULD NOT BE INTERFERED WITH, EXCEPT WHEN IMPERATIVE. British Government Points Out Difficulties Diffi-culties Involved and Intimates That Belligerents Have Obtained Ob-tained Contraband. Washington. Great Britain's preliminary pre-liminary roply to tho noto from the United States government requesting nn Improvement in tho treatment of American commcrco by tho British fleet was mndo public hero and in London on Sunday by mutual agreement agree-ment between tho stato department and tho British foreign office. Tho British communication concurs con-curs in tho view of tho United States thnt commerco between neutral nations na-tions should be Interfered with only when Imperatively necessary, and officials of-ficials of tho Washington government construed it nB conceding thnt tho principles expressed by tho American noto wero just and upheld by tho previously pre-viously accepted usages of international interna-tional law. Briefly tho British noto, while conceding con-ceding tho principles of the Amorlcan government's contention, points out difficulties In actunl practice, refers to alleged fraudulent practices by shippers ship-pers und cities statistics showing an increase in-crease rather than a decreaso in certain cer-tain neutral commerce, in support -of Great Britain's suspicions that Germany Ger-many and Austria havo been indirectly indirect-ly obtaining contraband through neutral neu-tral countries. Tho noto promises, howover, that Great Britain "will mnko redress" whenovor tho British fleot "may unintentionally unin-tentionally exceed" tho limitB of International In-ternational law. |