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Show HOSTILE ACTION NOIINIENDED NAVAL MEASURES OF GERMANY AGAINST ENGLAND IN NO SENSE A BLOCKADE. German Submarines and Warships Will Endeavor to Avoid Sinking American or Other Neutral Ships, It (s Announced. Berlin. The naval measures of Germany against British commerce are in no sense a blockade. Xo hostile hos-tile action against neutral shipping is contemplated. German submarines and warships will endeavor by every means in their power to avoid sinking American or other neutral ships and will take every precaution to avoid a mistake. The foregoing may be taken as the correct interpretation placed upon the German procalmation in competent compet-ent circles in Berlin. The proclamation declaring the waters around Great Britain to be a war zone like similar British measures meas-ures which were taken as a precedent, is designed, it is asserted, to warn neutrals that a ship venturing into the naval field of operations exposes itself, in the same fashion as a civilian civil-ian wandering on a laud battlefield, to the risk of being struck by a chance shot. It was stated on Monday that it might be safelv mans have no intention of sinking an American ship unless she is carrying contraband of war. and then only if her crew can be given the possibility of escape. It was added, however, that war measures will be carried out against British trade with all possible possi-ble severity in order "to give England a taste of her own medicine." The warning to neutral shipping, it was asserted, was considered as particularly par-ticularly needed in view of the reported report-ed order to British ships to hoist a neutral flag whenever they are in danger, an order which if adhered to. it was stated, would make it difficult for a German warship to discriminate between neutral and hostile shipping |