Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1939. SUBMARINE PIRACY.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 September 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1939. SUBMARINE PIRACY.

VOTIUNG that has happened to date in the present war not even the deliberately murderous. air bombing of civii mns in Poland, to which the American Ambassador Mt A. niclcllc) and others bear testimony—puts a plainer brand of crinunalitj on the German dictatorship than the manner m whichi it s conducting its submarine campaign against Allied and neut < merchant shipping. It is true that there have been some honourable exceptions to the general barbarity of the campaign. In at least one instance, an enemy TJ boat, having sunk a British steamer, towed the crew in their lifeboats to within easy rea J“ l of land. This observance of international law and of the laws of humanity has been very much the exception, however. _ It is now clear that the ruling character of the campaign against merchant shipping instituted by the Nazi dictatorship was fairly indicated in the atrocity with which it opened—the sinking oi the passenger liner-Athenia, with an inevitably heaty oss o non-combatant lives. The facts of the position were summed up by the British Ministry of Information in a statement, published yesterday, dealing with the sinking of the British steamer Royal Sceptre on September 6. The officers and men of this vessel were cast adrift in their boats “without possible hope.of reaching land. By happy chance they were rescued, but it remains true, as the Ministry of Information declared, that the sinking ot the Royal Sceptre, 'was a foul act of piracy, in direct contravention of the submarine protocol signed by Germany in 193 G, which is binding for all time. The protocol made it abundantly clear that no warship, sub marine or otherwise, is justified in sinking merchantmen unless the crews are placed in safety. Even if it were not forsworn, in this matter as in so many others, the Nazi dictatorship, by its resort to piracy and murder in sea warfare, plainly would be branded as unfit to exist. Although the present German Government is primarily responsible, it is a question whether, the commanders, at least, of enemy submarines should not be held accountable individually for deliberate violations of international law. . In the actual circumstances, however, this question is hardly likely to assume practical importance. The Allies are armed far more powerfully against the underwater craft than they were even m the closing stages of the Great War and the anti-submarine campaign tends more and more to resolve itself into a process.of extermination. It must be regretted that the men primarily responsible for what have rightly been denounced as acts of foul piracy enjoy a measure of security which most certainly does not extend to those who man the enemy U boats.