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Show HYPOCRISY OF ; GERMAN POLICY Lord Cecil Shows Up the False Representations of Beth-mann-Hollweg. LONDON, March 30. 9:20 p. m. Lord Robert Cecil, the British block-ado block-ado minister, this evening made a re-1 re-1 ply to the latest utterances of Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg, the German I imperial chancellor, in a statement to Tho Associated Press. "The German chancellor claims I that Germany in the past renounced the unrestricted uso of her submarlno weapon on the expectation that Great Britain could be made to observe in j her blockade policy the laws of humanity hu-manity and International agreement."' said Lord Robert. "It is difficult to say whether this statement Is the more remarkable for its tnpocrisy or for its falseness. "Has the chancellor forgotten that the German forces have been guilty 1 of excesses in Belgium unparalleled in history, culminating in the attempt-ed attempt-ed enslavement of a dauntless people; peo-ple; of poisoning wells, of bombarding bombard-ing open towns, torpedoing hospital I ships, and sinking other vessels with I total disregard for the safety of non-combatants non-combatants on board, with the result I that many hundreds of innocent vie-i tims, including both women and children, chil-dren, have lost their lives? "The latest manifestation of this policy is to be seen in the devastation devasta-tion and deportations carried out by the Germans in their forced retreat on the western front. The chancellor, states that it is because the allies have not abandoned their blockade and have refused the so-called peace I offer of Germany, unrestricted submarine sub-marine warfare now is decided on. As to this.' I will do no more than quote what the chancellor himself said in the reichstag when announcing the adop-tlon adop-tlon of unrestricted submarine war. "He said that as soon as he him self, in agreement with the supreme army command, reached the conviction convic-tion that ruthless U-boat warfare would bring Germany nearer to a victorious vic-torious peace, then the U-boat warfare war-fare would be started. He continued: " 'This moment now has arrived. Last autumn the time was not ripo, but today the moment has come when, with the greatest prospect of success, we can undertake this enterprise. enter-prise. We must not wait any longer. long-er. Where has there been a change? In the first place the most important i fact of all is that the number of our submarines has been very considerably considera-bly increased as compared with last spring, and thereby a firm basis has been created for success.' "Does this not prove conclusively 1 that it was not any scruple or any re-spect re-spect for international law or neutral rights that prevented unrestricted warfaro from being adopted earlier, but merely a lack of means to carry out? I think it may be useful once again to point out that the illegal and i inhuman attack on shipping by the Germans cannot be justified as a re prisal for the action of Great Britain in attempting to cut off from Germany all imports " |