Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1935. GERMANY'S SUBMARINES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 298, 30 September 1935, Page 4

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1935. GERMANY'S SUBMARINES.

Germany s first post-war submarine flotilla has been commissioned, in accordance with the policy of rearmament announced some three months ago. As a matter of fact, the craft were actually under construction when the announcement was made. When the naval agreement with Britain was signed in June, Germany excluded submarines from the fixed ratio to Britain’s naval strength. She maintained that she should have a submarine strength equal to that of the Empire, basing her case on the possession of such craft by ether countries. She alleged that the Soviet during the preceding two years had built more than forty. Then, again, she contended, the other Baltic Powers —Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland, Latvia, Esthonia and Finland —all possessed submarines to a total of nearly fifty. In addition there were also a number of such craft, already built or being completed, owned by Powers of wider sea-range: France 109, United States 89, Japan 68, Italy 6b, Great Britain 61. It is not the possession of submarines that constitutes the great issue, however. Rearmament of Germany was bound to come sooner or later and submarines are unfortunately part and parcel of modern naval strength. In lieu of total abolition the next best thing is restriction of their use. Germany has undertaken to adhere to the rules regarding submarine warfare as set out in the London Naval Treaty, and to accept them for herself irrespective of whether they are adhered to by all the other Powers. This pledge, made in the course of the recent naval conversations, is to be received with giadiess for all that it is worth and with care not to take it for more than it is worth. The rules are introduced in the treaty as accepted” by the signatories—Britain, the United States, and Japan as established rules of international law, and this phrase is not very comforting At the root of the notion of international law —which is not law in the strict sense of being capable of enforcement —is the general agreement of States to regard it, a view that in these days of much theoretically democratic government is inescapable. If any eminent State or States should decline to accept any rule, by. so much it would fail to be international law, and unfortunately France and Italy, by refusing to ratify the treaty quoted, and by ether ways, have declined to accept them. Thus Germany's undertaking does not bear any exact interpretation and it can only be .hoped that she will not remain impervious to the general condemnation of unrestricted submarine attacks.