DECLARATION OF LONDON

Evening Star, Issue 14473, 26 January 1911, Page 6

DECLARATION OF LONDON

RATIFICATION DEFERRED. A CANDID GERMAN ADMISSION. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, January 25. Some newspapers announce that the ratification of the Declaration of London will bo postponed until the Imperial Conference have discussed it. The ‘Daily Mail’s’ Ottawa correspondent leportn that owing to tho meagre despatches tho Declaration of linden has attracted little attention. The general opinion is that tho Dominions should not bo overlooked in a matter of this kind. Sir Wilfrid Laurier has not studied the matter, and before he comes to a definite decision Government experts will analyse the Declaration. Tho South Australian Agent-General, on being interviewed, said the Declaration ought not to bo ratified without due discussion. Tho ‘Manchester Guaidian’ (O.) regards Hie Declaration of London as unwise, and says it may mean the abandonment of principles which England has defended for a century—namely, that the onus of proof lay with the captor, while tho Declaration of London lavs the burden on the owner. If tho Declaration cun ho made binding it will bo easy to secure the prohibition of tho capture of private property altogether. England lias two courses ojwn to her—cither to make the sea in war time British territory, involving enormous cost, or to secure the complete freedom of tho sens to commerce. BERLIN, January 25. Tho ‘ Berlin Rost ’ declares that the campaign against the Declaration inquires the foreign Powers to reckon with the peril that will arise if ratification is refused and tho old privateering rights arc reallimed. It adds that the recent' British naval manainvres showed the sacrifice that an enemy’s fleet would make possible—almost tho complete destruction of the British mercantile marine Such a crippling of the mercantile marine would peiqietnallv jeopardise British supremacy in tho shipping trade.