ARMED LINERS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8465, 2 June 1916, Page 2

ARMED LINERS.

A well-known authority on. international law, Sir' Francis Piggott, thus deals with tho American suggestion that liners should not carry arms:—

" There is running through the sug- I gestions the idea that a merchant vessel has no right to resist an attack by a submarine. Tho corollary, were the suggestions accepted, is obvious ; that they should not "be armed for defence, for, if a merchant vessel may not use her armament, of what use is it putting it on board ? And since,, as we have seen, escape is also to bo prohibited, all that merchant vessels will have to do in future is to submit quickly. Thore is a vital difference between neutral vessels and belligerent vessels. The enemy has a right of search; the neutral vessel has a duty to submit to search; and, therefore, the order to stop must bo obeyed, therefore the warning shot is necessary, therefore evil consequences mii evitably follow a failure to obey this order. But nono .of- these things exists ! in the case of a belligerent merchantman. She must submit to captuare if I she is captured, but she is not required to lend a helping hand. Of course,' she may escape; of course, she ' may take all steps which prudence dictates to avert calamity. And what of tho enemy war vessel ? ;' I will pursue, I will overtake' is, of course, its signal; and it has a right of capture if it can, becauso the merchantman, is enemy property. But how ? Subject to the laws of humanity, and tho.general law of humanity is that a belligerent may not deliberately shed the blood of non-combatants; in the concrete, a man-of-war may nob engage a merchantman and pour broadsides into her or torpedo her. I am not going to lay down so broad a proposition as that capture of a merchant prize must be by sailing her down, and that no shot may be fired. Tf it is necessary to fire by reason of the attempt to escape, it may be done ' so long as the attack ceases as soon as flight ceases'; and, further, if there is resistance, tho capture may bo effected by force, again, 'so long as the attack ceases so soon as resistance censes.' The completo American proposition is this: That a merchantman may not show a clean pair of heels when an enemy warship appears on tho horizon, or resist when a submarine comes upon .her quarter— which means that prizes may be made by signal. They are subversive, therefore, of tho natural law which ! governs human actions, for they enj doavour to establish for the sea tho I -nrinciplo that you may neither escape danger nor take due measures to avert ! it, even though the danger be not merely capture, but being sent to the bottom."