GERMAN SHIPPING.—THE CRIME AND THE PENALTY.
THERE is nothing upon which Allied opinion is so thoroughly agreed as upon the penalty which must be exacted from the Germans for their crime of piracy upon the high seas. The Germans deliberately chose to break not only conventions, as they might say, of modern international taw, but the oldest and most humane customs of maritime warfare. They took and destroyed prizes of war at sea when they were unable to provide for the safety of their mercantile (not combatant) crews. In former days, witness the history of that notable sea-rover, the 'Alabama,' when the rover had not room to take on board the crew of a captured vessel destined to be given to the flames she allowed her to go scot-free, obeying here the rule of the sea which prevailed throughout the Napoleonic Wars. The Germans deliberately broke the rule by which the seamen were saved from the anguish of drowning even when their ships were taken and destroyed. In their new system of war on merchant shipping they left the crews. far from land and in fragile boats, to the mercy of the waves. This was their avowed and open practice; But, though this was cruel enough, their secret practice, as we know, was far more horrible. When they thought that policy demanded it. the word was passed to "sink without leaving a trace" (Spurlos Versenken), and to this hideous piece of Machiavellism a large part of the Germans' salt-water butcher's bill must be ascribed. We should not indeed be surprised to learn that of the fifteen thousand civilian merchant seamen sent to their graves—not to speak of the passengers, the women and children, nurses and wounded men, who perished by submarine attack—near a third owed their deaths to the policy of sinking without a trace, a policy which in practioe led. to tramp steamers and helpless little craft being shot to pieces at a distance by a submarine, or to a submarine dashing in amongst the boats in which the crew and passengers had hoped to escape. Has anything more pitiless ever been recorded in the whole history of inhumanity than the slaughter of the men in the boats ? It is difficult enough to fill and launch boats in five minutes—the time allowed was often no longer—but when that was accomplished think of the relief of the men who believed themselves safe for the time from their perils. And then think of their feelings as the shells and machine-gun bullets began to fall among them and to turn their hopes to despair. It is strange indeed that even Germans obeyed orders involving deeds so atrocious as these.
Of what were probably the worst horrors of the campaign of " Spurlos Versenken ' we have no reports. As was reckoned on by the Germans, dead men tell no tales. Owing, however, to two most curious and unlikely accidents, the policy which the Germans no doubt thought was too bad to be believed even about them came into the light of day. The first of these was the very unusual incident of men being able to conceal lifebelts under their greatcoats. It will be remembered that in the case of the 'Belgian Prince' the whole of the crew, doomed to death by drowning lest they should bear witness to Germany's deeds, were placed upon the deck of the submarine, and the order was then passed round that all those who were wearing cork jackets and other life-saving devices must remove them. That was done by all except three men who as we have said, happened to be able to hide their lifebelts. Then the submarine submerged, in the comfortable belief that all the men in the water must drown and leave no trace. They all did drown except the fortunate three. These remained for eleven hours in the water, and were then picked up by a destroyer which had come at the original S.O.S." call of the 'Belgian Prince.'
This episode might, if it had stood alone, have been explained away as purely exceptional. Another accident, however, equally astonishing, and equally unlikely to happen from the German point of view, disclosed that what happened in the case of the Belgian Prince 'was not the freak of a particularly brutal 'U '-boat commander, but was part of a deliberate scheme. By a piece of skilful secret-service work, the State Department in Washington first obtained the key to the cipher used by the German Minister at Buenos Aires in com- municating with his Government, and then possessed them- selves of the German cipher telegrams despatched by the Swedish Minister at Buenos Aires to the Swedish Foreign Office at Stockholm, to be forwarded by them to Berlin. Here it was suggested that Argentine ships should, if possible, be spared, but if this proved impossible, then they were to be sunk withoUt" leaving a trace. In plain language, this meant murder by the most cruel of deaths, a form of death which hitherto no seafaring combatants except the pirate who made his victims walk the plank had ever contemplated. Take for example the way in which our sailors at Trafalgar at imminent risk to their lives saved the crews of their enemy's warships about to sink or blow up. The work of succour was most dangerous, but was undertaken as a sacred obligation.
In view of a crime so cruel and so deliberate, a crime the result of cold-blooded policy and not of the heat and passion of battle, a crime far worse than even the massacre of civilians in a town stormed by soldiery half-mad with the excitement of battle, the Allies must surely have determined that the Germans shall, as one of the terms of peace to be granted to our enemies when the time for granting comes, make reparation not merely by a money indemnity, but by forfeiture in kind from their mercantile marine. Taking from them ton for ton to replace ships sunk in their orgy of sea homicide will not, alas ! bring to life the fifteen thousand gallant men whom they have sent to their graves. The forfeiture of the actual ships will, however, do something to expiate the secondary German crime of wantonly, deliberately, and unnecessarily depriving the world of some ten or twelve million tons of sea transport at a moment when every ton is of importance to save Europe from starvation. The first items in reconstruction—i.e., in putting the world straight, and in cleaning up the blood and filth of Germany's misdeeds—will be the re-transportation of the American and British forces to their homes overseas, the revictualling of the Allied and Neutral countries, and the transport of the raw material which will enable us to set the discharged soldiers in Belgium, France, Italy, Britain, and. America to work at their old trades. The thing that will be wanted most in the world when Peace is made will be ship tonnage in being, and ready at once to put to sea. Money to build ships later cannot possibly meet the requirements of the Allies.
This means in practice that the Allies must insist in the Peace terms upon taking the whole of Germany's mercantile marine, not only that which is now in the hands of the Allies or in Neutral ports, but all of the shipping laid up in Germany, whether ships built before the war or since, for it is notorious that the Germans have lately built a great many fine new ships for their Peace offensive. Out of the German shipping thus pooled (to which must be added the Austrian shipping, for Austria has been partieeps criminis all through the U -boat campaign) reparation on the principle of ton for ton must be made to the Allies. When Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, America, and the rest of the Allies have had their mercantile losses at sea fully made up by the allotment of German ships, old or new, the Neutrals should have the remainder distributed amongst them to make up their losses. This will seem perhaps a hard saying to the Neutrals, such as Holland, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, but it is unavoidable. For various reasons which we will not go into here, countries like Spain have not thought it their duty to help the cause of humanity by joining in the work of extin- guishing the German conflagration. They have, as they would say, no doubt, preferred to preserve their populations from the horrors of war. Well and good. We are not going to quarrel with them for that, or to suggest any treatment of them which could be regarded as in the least unfair or wanting in humanity. But clearly they cannot have it both ways. They cannot refrain from lending a hand to destroy the German peril, and then, when others have destroyed that peril, claim equal rights as regards reparation. It is therefore our deliberate opinion that the Neutral Powers must be called upon to surrender their German shipping to the Allies in order to make certain that the Allied mercantile marine shall be fully reinstated. After the Allies' losses have been made good, but not till then, will be the time for the Neutrals to insist on Germany repaying them in kind for the injuries they have suffered in the U '-boat campaign.
And now comes another point which we most sincerely hope is receiving the attention of the Governments of all the Allied Powers. If they have not do'ne so already, the Allies should, in our opinion, issue a clear notice to Germany and Austria that the whole of their mercantile shipping will have to be handed over for compensation purposes, and that they will be held responsible for the delivery of such shipping. and for its delivery in good order. We are suggesting no overnice precaution, for it may be remembered that when the Americans came to take over the German shipping they found that what the Germans thought was irreparable damage had been done to the machinery of the interned ships. Damage 3f a similar kind was done to the German ships in the Tagus. Nothing of that sort must be allowed to happen to the ships that have been in German harbours throughout the war, or to the ships, finished or unfinished, in the German commercial building yards. If we are asked how we are to ensure our demands being acted on, we reply : Let the Allied Powers serve notice upon the German and Austrian Governments that if any shipping is destroyed, either by injury to the engines, or by setting fire to the ships, or by. exploding bombs in them, the persons giving orders for the destruction of shipping or executing such orders will be held responsible with their lives, and that no excuses of any kind will be accepted for what must be regarded as one of the greatest of crimes—i.e., the destruction of the ships required for the revictaalling of the world, and so for the pre- vention of famine and pestilence. Every ton of the German mercantile marine is wanted, and any one who wantonly destroys any part thereof, or fails to guard the German ships from wanton damage by mobs and incendiaries, must be regarded as an enemy of mankind.
Though nothing was said about shipping and the ton- for-ton principle in President Wilson's fourteen points, of which we have heard so much this week, it will also be admitted that nothing is said in these points which is inimical to our proposal. Indeed, we shall be greatly surprised if the American Government and the American people are not foremost in press- ing such demands as we have formulated. Nothing horrified American opinion more than the sinking of the Lusitania.' It was indeed because of the unrestricted '-boat campaign and the sinking without trace that America finally decided to enter the war. Again, America did not hesitate for a moment in the matter of seizing and using the German ships in her waters. Finally, ever since she entered the war America has been in the forefront in insisting that the Neutrals, as we have said, cannot have it both ways, and that, since they could not or would not do anything to further the good cause, they cannot expect privileged treatment, though they will of course receive all the consideration which justice and equity demand.
Once again, we would implore the Allied Governments to give the notice that we have suggested in regard to the destruc- tion or injury of the German merchant ships in German hands. If such notice is not given, and given in a way that clearly means business, we may be quite certain that when Germany realizes that she will have to give the Allies ton for ton we shall hear of the destruction of German shipping. The Germans would not be human if, being left free to do this, they did not do it. The threat of insisting upon a per- sonal responsibility would, we admit, have meant very little if the Germans still had any hope of winning the war. Now that that hope is gone it will mean a great deal. Therefore the sooner we let our enemies know the consequences of destroying even their own merchant shipping the better it will be for them and us.
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