FREEDOM OF THE SEAS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 963, 13 March 1917, Page 8

FREEDOM OF THE SEAS.

U.S.A. FOR 134 YEARS. MONROE v. HQLLWEG. A cable a few days ago likened the situation which has arisen between Germany and the United States to that with which America was confronted in 1812 by Napoleon's Continental System. The United States of America will have completed the 134 th year of its national independence on September 3 next. That independence (writes E. George Marks in a recent exchange) was formally recognised by Great Britain by the treaty of peace signed in Paris in 1783. George Washington, the first President of the Republic, was called to office to watch over the Constitution in 1789 —the eve of the great French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. To keep the young Republic free from European entanglements was Washington's policy. Seventy-two years hence—from the commencement of the civil war in 1801—Abraham Lincoin adhered to a like policy. A long succession of Presidents — Adams, Grant, Monroe, Garfield, Madison, Jackson, van Buren, Tyler', Polk, Taylor, Buchanan, Wilson — were all imbued with President Washington's doctrine. Hence President Wilson's caution. Attacks on Shipping. Almost all the wars of the United States with European nations have arisen out of the molestation of her shipping. History is repeating itself. John Adams was President in 1797 the year that Napoleon was electrifying the Continental nations with the rapidity of his amazing series of successes against the Austrians in Italy. For some time the Directory—the then Government of France—had been molesting American shipping to such an extent that the commerce of the country was being ruined. President Adams counselled the excited nation to have patience. Negotiations failed. America declared war on France. After the inept Directory was swept away by Napoleon's coup d'etat in 1799 the First Consul made peace with the American Republic. Congress, whilst the war was in progress, passed an Alien and Sedition Act, empowering the President to send out of the country all foreigners found to be conspiring against the peace and safely of the Republic. President Wilson's legal training may enable him to remember that useful Act in the present crisis. America and Napoleon. Napoleon was a conquerer in Berlin in 1806. In the twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt, fought on the same day, France had annihilated the Prussian legions. Austerlitz, the year before, had broken the power of the Austrians. Tlie Central Germanic Powers were at his feet. England, unmolested, inviolate, was still his greatest, his most formidable enemy. On November 20, 1806, encircled by his triumphant legions, he launched his famous Berlin decrees against Great Britain—declaring the British islands in a state of blockade and prohibiting all trade and intercourse wilh that nation. An Order-in-Council was issued by England in November, 1807, forbidding neutral shipping to enter the ports of France until they had first touched at a British port and paid duty. Napoleon, from Milan, replied by a decree ordering the confiscation of every vessel which should submit to be searched or pay any duties to the British authorities. Thus Napoleon's Continental System was launched. Such arbitrary power meant the destruction of all neutral commerce. America was indignant, Mr Jefferson, the American President in ISO 7, advised Congress to detain all vessels in the ports of the United States, and lo order the immediate return to American waters of American vessels abroad. This expedient was unsuccessful, and the measure was repealed in 1809. Napoleon's decrees and. England's Orders-in-Council were inflicting the greatest hardships on American shipping and commerce. Congress passed an Act prohibiting all intercourse between the United States, Great Britain, and France. Napoleon, in 1811, withdrew his restrictions upon the commerce of America, and the United Stales withdrew the prohibition of trade wilh France. The approach of the great war wilh Russia influenced Napoleon, and England refused to withdraw her Ordcrs-in-Council. On January 11, 1812, Napoleon left Dantzig to take command of his magnificent army of 640,000 men, about to invade the ban-en wastes of Russia. America Protects Her Interests.

Only eight days before the Unit-; ed Slates had declared war against i Great Britain—a legacy of Napo-' Icon's Continental System. The war! on sea was fought with much valour.! For the first lime in half a century I an English ship-of-war struck her flag to a vessel of equal size. August I 19, 1812, the frigate Constitution captured the English frigate Guerriere. Great was the elation of the Americans at this feat. With varying successes the struggle continued;! the defeat of Napoleon by the Allies' at Leipsic, October, 1813, hastened i the end. Mr Madison, during the! greater part of the war with Eng-j land, ruled over the destinies of the j American Republic. James Monroe, I a Virginian, was his Secretary of: State. lie was President in June, 1816—a year after the cannon had' ceased to thunder on the Plains of Waterloo. The man who had launched the Continental System, injuring the commerce of America and other was a prisoner on a rock in the Atlantic. Great Britain's Or-ders-in-Council had left an unpalatable taste in the mouth of President Monroe. His sympathy with Europe was alienated. America had fought and won her independence. America, territorially as well as na-

tionally, was for the Americans. A stern rejoinder was ready for the European Power which craved American territory; which committed overt acts of war in the territorial waters of the Republic. Monroe Doctrine. President Mon oe was greatly in earnest. He expounded his views to Congress in 1823. The successors of President Monroe have consistently recognised the principle lie then promulgated as the unwavering policy of the United States: "That as a principle the American continents, by free and independent position which they have assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered subjects of further colonisation by any" European Power." The Monroe Doctrine siill subsists. Napoleon 111., whilst the American Civil War of 1801-5 was in progress, made a daring effort to ignore the doctrine. He attempted to organise Mexico as an Empire. Archduke Maxmilian of Austria was handed the sceptre. When the civil strife of the Americans had ended Napoleon 111. was Sold by the United Slates Government that Mexico must be evacuated; that the Monroe Doctrine must be respected. Early in 18C7 the French troops were withdrawn from Mexico. The sound of the tramp of the departing soldiers had barely died away when the Mexicans caplured and executed Maximilian as a usurper. Twenty-nine years later, in 1896, the Monroe Doctrine was again asserted. Venezuela, a northern republic of South America, was the pivot of the dispute. Great Britain was accused of seeking an unwarranted extension of territory at the expense of Venezuela. Common sense and a little diplomacy dissipated the war clouds. Two years later the United States was at war with Spain. Much vigour was displayed in the dispatch of expeditions to Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. Spain was taught a stern lesson; Cuba was made an independent republic under the protection of the United States. Aggressions Resented. Close scutiny of the 134 years of the independence of the United States makes it undeniably manifest that she will not quietly submit to unwarranted aggressions from European nations, either on sea or land, inseparably associated with the true American is the proud and unconquerable spirit of the English. He will not be insulted with impunity. The abrogating of the treaty entered into by Germany with America after the sinking of the Sussex is only another instance of Teutonichad faith and untrustworthincss. Germany has flung down the gauntlet to the Great Republic. The Kaiser's admirers have had their mathematical brains at work. They imagine that the problem is worked out. Deprive Great Britain and her Allies of the United States as the great supply depot—food and munitions —then a real and effective blockade Mali exist. "Calculations in war often miscarry" is an axiom attributable to Napoleon—an infinitely greater genius than the Kaiser or any of his admirers. He calculated that his Continental System would inevitably ruin the trade and commerce of England; it ruined him instead. Destined to a similar fate is the Kaiser. His defiance of America is the last throw of the international gambler. Soon he will find the fighting spirit of the American; when shipping and commerce are attacked. That spirit failed not in former wars. The fingers of the Allies—European and America—are now upon his throat. Less and less becomes his breathing.