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Show BRITONS CONCUR IN VIEWOFAMERICANS NEUTRAL COMMERCE SHOULD NOT BE INTERFERED WITH, EXCEPT WHEN IMPERATIVE. British Government Points Out Dif fi-cultisjs fi-cultisjs Involved and Intimates That Belligerents Have Obtained Ob-tained Contraband. Washington. Great Britain's preliminary pre-liminary reply to the note from the United States government requesting an improvement in the treatment of American commerce by the British fleet was made public here and in London on Sunday by mutual agreement agree-ment between the state department and the British foreign office. The British communication concurs con-curs in the view of the United .States that commerce between neutral nations na-tions should be interfered with only when imperatively necessary, and officials of-ficials of the Washington government construed it as conceding that the principles expressed by the American note were just and upheld by the previously pre-viously accepted usages of international interna-tional law. Briefly the British note, wbA.e conceding con-ceding the principles of thfc American government's contention, points out difficulties in actual practice, refers to alleged fraudulent practices by shippers ship-pers and cities statistics showing an increase in-crease rather than a decrease in certain cer-tain neutral commerce, in support of Great Britain's suspicions that Germany Ger-many and Austria have been indirectly indirect-ly obtaining contraband through neutral neu-tral countries. The note promises-, - however, that Great Britain "will make redress" whenever the British fleet "may unintentionally unin-tentionally exceed" the limits of international in-ternational law. |
