PRESIDENT WILSON ON PIRACY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 15950, 22 June 1915, Page 6

PRESIDENT WILSON ON PIRACY

Though in a hesitating and some-' what negative way, the "* United States has at last intimated to Germany that her submarine campaign is not warfare, but piracy. It was believed that this ground would-be taken in the Note regarding the sinking of the Lusitania. The resignation of Mr. Bryan prior to the publication of the* Lusitania Note led to many newspaper " anticipations " that President Wilson would demand a cessation of under-water piracy as a preliminary to further negotiations. The Lusitania, however, was not an American ship, and the President-taking a strictly American view of the' question— then content with demanding that the lives of American citizens on unarmed merchant ships of every nationality must be respected and safeguarded. In the Lusitania Note emphasis was laid on Germany's obligation to give warnings and to make provision for live-saving- The Note on' the William Frye carries the argument a step further, for Mr. Wilson now " refuses to admit " that an American ship may be destroyed even if she is carrying contraband. The whole controversy is a striking illustration of the ineptness of Mr. Wilson's methods. The William Frye, 'an American ship, was sunk early in March. Over three months later the President. of the* United Spates is at tho stage of "refusing to admit" the right of Germany to balance her illegal destruction by a money payment. Meantime, 'Norway and , Sweden are becoming restless under the loss of life and property caused by continued German piracy. But the indignation of the weak Scandinavian states can have no influence in Germany while the one great neutral contents herself with word? splitting, and takes months .of marching through legal documents to discover an illegality that has, been notorious to all the world since Germany first announced/- her submarine "'blockade." ft .