LAND AND vWATER. 
July 31, 1915. 
in mind, that a far narrower modification of sea 
law was intended than appears from a first read- 
ing of the Note. 
SOME CORRESPONDENTS. 
The American Note is so clear and succinct a 
statement of the principles under which neutral 
trade is carried on in war tliat I recommend its 
text to those who haA'e found this subject difficult 
to understand. One correspondent, for instance, 
quarrels with me for saying that it was muddle- 
headedness to speak as if it were the American 
Government and not private American firms that 
are sending munitions. He says, if this argument 
is sound, why cannot private English firms supply 
munitions to Germany? He assumes that the 
British Government prevents this, because it has 
no intention of supplying munitions to Germany 
itself, and argues that, if America desired to 
preserve strict neutrality, it would stop its citizens 
supplying any belligerent. His next point is 
that the advent of the submarine makes the 
carrying of contraband on passenger ships an act 
of questionable morality, comparable to using 
women and children as a screen for armed forces. 
If ammunition was on board the Lusitania, he 
says, the Germans were still in the wrong, but so 
were we, for it was a mean act to smuggle it under 
petticoats and perambulators. 
To supply munitions is a right of American 
traders ; to stop them would be to limit their rights 
more effectively than the Germans can ever do. 
America is threatening Germany with loss of 
friendship unless the present forms of inter- 
ference cease. Her action is not hostile to Ger- 
many, but protective of her traders. If Germany 
cares to send for munitions she can buy them in 
America, too. 
It is difficult to know what to say about 
the second point, because there are some forms 
of intellectual perversity which seem to go beyond 
muddle-headedness — into ?r/'on<7-headedness, in 
the most literal meaning of that condemnatory 
adjective. My correspondent's assumption is that 
had the Lusitania carried munitions and no 
women and children, it could legitimately have 
been sunk. The drowning of the male passengeri? 
and crew would have been no offence ! Are we all 
getting so used to murder as to think it excusable 
60 long as it is convenient ? 
Another correspondent raises a difficulty 
which, I know, many have felt. How is it that 
British submarines seem to exercise the same pot- 
at-sight principles in the Sea of Marmara as 
German submarines elsewhere ? Are the crew of a 
transport looked on as soldiers, and are all the 
boats the British are sinking in the Sea of 
Marmara transports? What about the vessels 
carrying coal to Constantinople ? 
Transports and the Army's supply ships — 
Le., ships chartered by a Government and in the 
service of its armed forces — are perfectly legiti- 
mate objects of attack. Had the German sub- 
marines sunk the transports carrying British 
troops from England to France, or from Australia 
and Canada to British ports, or the transports 
anchored round the Gallipoli Peninsula — like 
the French Carthage — in attendance on the 
troops, the act would have been perfectly legiti- 
mate, and well within what those in command of 
the ship would have reason to expect and be under 
an obligation to guard against. The coal supply 
of Constantinople comes from the French-owned 
mines of Zongouldak. These mines have been 
taken over by the Turkish Government, and are 
the only source of supply from which fuel is got 
for ligliting Constantinople, for coaling the trans- 
ports that supply the army in the peninsula, and 
for working the Krupp munition establishments 
supplying shell to the front. The coal ships are 
Government vessels and in exactly the same case 
as supply ships. The distinction between the 
coal ship in the Black Sea and the Lusitania or 
any other private trading ship carrying muni- 
tions from America to Great Britain is the dis- 
tinction between a Government chartered ship 
sailing in the service of the Government and a 
merchant ship carrying on its normal and legiti- 
mate business. By agreement among civilised 
Powers, any form of warlike stores coming from 
a neutral country in either a neutral or non-com- 
batant belligerent ship are contraband liable to 
seizure; but they do not expose the ship to sink- 
ing without notice nor the passengers to the risk 
of death. 
OUR DEBT TO BELGIUiVl. 
Although the. phrase " Our Debt to Belgium " is a com- 
mon one, it is not generally realised that the debt is an instant 
and pressing one; that, apart from the work that must be 
done in Belgium after the war, there is a present and pressiu» 
need for no less than £500,000 a month to keep Belgians from 
actual starvation. There are, at the present time, nearly 
seven million Belgians still in their own country. It is esti- 
mated that, with the rapid exhaustion of the meat and 
vegetable supplies, two and a half millions of these are solely 
dependent on charity for their daily food, and the remainder 
are able to pay for the small allowance of bread that they get 
through the efforts of the neutral commission for relief in 
Belgium. This neutral commission, a miracle of self-sacrific- 
ing and devoted administration, is in sore straits for funds. 
In this country a quarter of a million Belgians are being 
sheltered and given hospitality — but that is not enough. Two 
and a half millions more of tlie population of Belgium are in 
need of bread in their own ruined country, and no victories of 
the future, no promises of reconstruction after the war, are of 
use to the people threatened with starvation now. By their 
vic^jrious sacrifice the people of Belgium made possible the 
continuance of our civilisation, saved Paris from German occu- 
pation, and, in all probability, saved England from invasion. 
The support of these people in their dire need is an obligation 
laid on us; their need cannot be exaggerated; if they are not 
fed, they die, and since Britain as a nation has gained most 
by the suffering of Belgium, it is the duty of Britain to see 
that they are fed. Subscriptions to the National Committee's 
Fund, of which every psnny contributed goes to the Belgians 
in the form of food, may be sent to Mr. A. Shirley Benn, 
M.P., at Trafalgar Buildings, Trafalgar Square, W.C. 
A YEAR OF WAR. 
" Land and Water " of August 14th 
will be a Special Double Number, price 
one shilling, containing, in addition to 
all the usual features, a Review of the 
First Year of the War by Hilaife 
Eelloc and A. H. Pollen. This 
review^ -will form the best and most 
complete summary of the first year's 
■war on land and sea that has been 
published. As an exceptionally large 
demand for the number is anticipated, 
orders should be placed at once -with 
ne^s'sagents and bookstalls. 
14 
