PUNISHMENT AND CRIME

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 140, 13 June 1918, Page 6

PUNISHMENT AND CRIME

Whether the seamen's boycott of Germany, inspired by Mr. Havelock Wilson, is practicable we dp not know; but thpse who condemn it on moral grounds, as rashly vindictive, should remember a few of the more striking episodes of the submarine murder campaign. An English contemporary recalls that, in July of 1917, a German submarine torpedoed the Mariston, whose crew " were left struggling in the sea amid a school of sharks. The submarine commander came up, watched the scene, and then disappeared. All but one of the crew were devoured by the German's allies." In tho same' month the Belgian Prince was torpedoed 200 miles from the- North Coast of Ireland, and 43 men oi the crew wore mustered on the deck, of the submarine. After .their boats had been j sunk and their lifebelts thrown into the sea, the.German commander closed the hatch and submerged, leaving the 43 men to drown. " Three escaped by a miracle; .the other forty were ftally murdered." Indirect murder of a peculiarly Prussian brand was committed in tho Atlantic in October, 1916, when the Cabotia's crew were compelled to face a heavy sea in four boats. A neutral steamer hove in sight, but the submarine forbade her to rescue the castaways; and two of the boats were never h«ard of again. When such crimes as these have been committed, a seamen's boycott of Germany may or may not be the most effective form of retribution, but no one can honestly describe jit as a policy of hate. If such a boycott is held to be vindictive, then all punishment for all crime must surely be ruled out on the same pretext.