German sea-port towns have been beflagged in the past week
in celebration of a characteristic piece of German nautical stage- management. On July 9th the Gel man submarine Deutschland' arrived from Germany at Norfolk in the United States, fitted out as a submarine merchantman. She carried a crew of about thirty, and a cargo of merchandise of under four hundred tons. Germans say that the blockade has been " broken " and that a new era has opened. If it is a new era to spend fifty pounds on conveying goods worth twenty pounds to a neutral market, may the era prosper ! As regards the seamanship of taking the ' Deutschland' across the Atlantic, it was of course fine, but it was not anything new. Several British submarines were navigated from Canada to Gallipoli—a much longer voyage than that of the Deutschland.' The American authorities have declared that the submarine is not a ship of war, but it is obvious that a merchantman which is built to evade search exposes herself to combatant treatment under international law.
