The Pirates' Victims.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 16516, 7 May 1919, Page 6

The Pirates' Victims.

!• We do not hop© for much result from Ir the resolution passed, by the loternad tional Congress of Transport "Workers r> at Amsterdam, in which the. German representatives were urged to induce * their <3overnnlent to indemnify the relatives of the 20,000 people killed by , the submarine warfare. Prominent | i, German members of the Central Couti- j P cil of the International Transport Workt ers' Federation, who have befcn pubj licly named hy Mr Havelock Wilson, the fighting head of the Merchant Seamen's ( League, and president of the Seamen's . .Union, have, in the past, justified the piracy of the and it is hardly likely that the German workers whom they represented have since experienced any change" of heart. The German Government, wo may be sure, will pay no more in indemnities than is enforced upon thorn, and they will certainly pay not the slightest attention to any suggestion—if it is made —that they should compensate the victims of a style of warfare of which, if the truth were known, they are still rather proud than otherwise. We doubt even whether the boycott instituted by British, French, and American seamen and firemen against Gorman sailors and German goods would move them to make voluntarily such reparation for the submarine murders as lay in their power. Fortunately the resolution of the Amsterdam Congress, which indicates a touchingly generous belief on the part of the members in Germany's sense of justice, is not the only, nor, indeed, the chief weapon in the hands of those who have suffered so sadly by the unspeakable crimes committed by German submarine commanders and crews. If it were A their chance of obtaining some redress would be slight indeed. What they have to rely upon as a means of securing that redress is the definito promise of the British Prime Minister that tho first demand put forward by Great Britain's delegates to tho Peace Conference should be "full compensation for losse3 at sea, " including compensation to tho poor " poople who have suffered through " their relatives having lost their lives.'' j That promise was made some twoj months ago to a deputation representing all branches of the British mercantile marine. Mr Cathery, the chief 1 spokesman of the deputation, declared that nearly 17,000 seamen had been brutally murdered on the high seas during the war, and, in addition, somo thousands had died from the effects of exposure in open boats for several days, so that, at a very low estimate, the J total deaths due to the war among soamen could be put down at 20,000. Tho seamen's organisations had a full record of the 17,000 men who had lost their lives by the direct action of the U-boats, and were collecting the necessary information regarding the others. Mr Lloyd George, after paying an eloquent tribuf*. to the courage displayed by the men of tho merchant service

i throughout the war, to whom tho Em i pire and the Allies owed an enormoui [ debt of gratitude, made the promisi i we have quoted above. "Tho Ger "man," he added, "must pay f° ! ' "this, and he must pay it as the £tsl [ " claim—this must come before mer< "indemnity for war expenses." Non« > of the Allies had disputed the justice ■ of the claim that Britain was putting forward in Tespect to the heroic deac of the British mercantile marine. Th< Premier concluded by urging the members of the deputation to send in theii claims at once to the Foreign Ofßce : and to see that they included overybodj who had suffered. We have yet to learr what shape the demand for compensation in these cases has taken, but 'i cannot be doubted, after Mr Lloyd George's emphatic assurances, that the claim will be made and will be pressed. The response of the British seamen tc the call of duty during the war was without parallol. The safety and existence of the Old Country and her Allies depended on the resolute refusal of the British merchant sailors to be intimidated by what the Premier truly described as the most infamous exhibition of piracy that the world has ever seen. Tho debt can never be met in full, but England owes it to hor dead Bailors that those whom they left behind shall not suffer hardship or want.