LAND AND, W A T E K . 
March 23, igib. 
The infractions concx-rn the inessentials, the struggle con- 
cerns tlie fundamentals. To quo^te from an admirable 
article in tiu: current number of The Round Ttiblc : 
" When one of those fmuhimentals has been challenged 
there ought in principle to be no neutral rights and no 
neutrals . . . No nation is entitled to say that 
its rights entitle it to obstruct those who arc endeavour- 
ing to defend international right and liberty. " 
i 
American Interests 
President Wilson has taken up a very simple and 
intelligible line. He is the mouthpiece of the American 
people, and therefore can only carry out the will of the 
majority of his countrymen. In this he would seem to 
have succeeded. He considers further that it is his busi- 
ness to concern himself solely with American interests, 
a view in which he is doubtless right. No statesman is 
obhged to be a Paladin, setting forth to do battle against 
wandering Paynims. But the question arises as to what 
is the true American interest, what is the true interest of 
all neutrals, and on this point it would appear that 
President Wilson and the majority of his countrymen 
have judged superficially. 
Let Mr. Root speak : 
" The American democracy stands for something 
more than beef and cutton and grain and manufactures ; 
it stands for something tliat cannot I)e measured by rates 
o( e.vchange, and does not rise or fall with the balance of 
trade. 
The American people achieved liberty and schooled 
themselves to the service of justice before they acquired 
wealth, and they \alue their country's liberty and justice 
above all their pride of possessions. Beneath their 
comfortable optimism and apparent indifference they Iiavc 
a conception of their great republic as brave and strong 
and noble to hand down to their children the blessings of 
freetlom and just and equal laws. 
They have embodied tlicir principles of Govern- 
ment in fixed rules of right conduct which they jealously 
])reserve, and, with the instinct of individual freedom, 
they stand for a Government of laws and not of men. 
They deem that the moral laws which fornmlate the 
duties of men toward each other are binding upon nations 
equally with individuals. 
Informed by their own experience, confirmed by 
their observation of international life, they have come to' 
see that the independence of nations, the Hberty of their 
ix^oples, justice and humanity, cannot be maintained 
upon the complaisance, the good nature, the kindly feeling 
of th« strong towards the weak ; that real independence, 
fc-al liberty, cannot rest upon sufferance ; that peace and 
liberty can be preserved only by the authority and observ- 
ance of rules of national conduct founded upon the 
principles of justice and humanity ; only by the establish- 
ment of law among nations, responsive to the enlightened 
public opinion of mankind." 
Against that Law was set the German Force and the Law 
was broken. It was, says Mr. Root, American law, 
just as much as any domestic statute. 
" We had bound ourselves by it ; we had regulated our 
conduct by it, and we were entitled to have other nations 
observe it. That law was the protection of our peace 
and security. It was our safeguard against the necessity 
of maintaining great armaments and wasting our substance 
in continual readiness for war. Our interest in having 
it maintained as the law of nations was a substantial, 
valuable, permanent interest, just as real as your interest 
and mine in having maintained and enforced the laws 
against assault and robbery and arson which protect 
our personal safety and property." 
Where then docs the true interest of neutrals lie ? In 
a jjettifogging insistence upon the details of old inter- 
national practice in commercial affairs, thereby hamper- 
ing the efforts of the Power which dares to defend the 
greater matters of the Law ? Or in co-operation, active 
(jr passive, with the Power which stands for the funda- 
m ntals ? Mr. Root has no doubt. In his speech at 
Washington he said : 
" Up to this time breaches of international law have 
been treated as we treat wrongs under civil jjroredure. as 
if they concerned nobody except the particular nation 
upon which the injury was inflicted, and the nation inflict- 
ing it. There has been no general recognition of the right 
of other nations to object. . . If the law of nations 
is to be binding there must be a change of theory. And 
violations of tlie law of such a character as to threaten 
the peace aiul order of the conmnmify of nations nm>-t be 
treated by analogy to criminal law. They must he. 
ileemcd to be a violation of the right of every civilised 
nation to liu\e the law maintained." 
The Cross Roads 
Hafpi'y we may believe that Mr. Root does 'fiSt 
stand aloi c. His speeches have cleared the air, and much 
of the best opinion in his country is on his side. America 
to-day stands at the cross roads. She has to decide 
whether she will remain apart in selfish isolation, reaping 
where she has not sown and gathering where she has not 
strewed, or whether she will take a share as a Great Power 
in the police work of the world. It is no question of 
sacrificing American interests. The question is where 
her true interests lie. 
Each of the Allies to-day is fighting for its own 
special purpose. Britain, for example, aims at security 
and at the maintenance of that free Empire, whose 
ideals will be found in those lines of Claudian which have 
never yet found an adequate translator. But all the 
Allies are lighting for one major cause, and that is the 
establishment of Law as against Force on the world's 
throne. We have to check and punish the law-breaker, 
and for the innposc the chief instrument is the British 
fleet. Can any neutral, small or great, who sees in the 
reign of law his true interest, seriously desire to weaken 
the power of the constable against the criminal ? For, 
remember, the criminal is self-confessed. The case is 
not sub juiikc. Germany has proclaimed and gloried 
in a creed which reposes the conduct of the world's buhine^s 
on the ethics of the .Stone Age. Does a man, when the 
house next door to him is burgled, try to trip up tiu; 
policeman, even though in his haste that zealous officer 
may have trodden on liis toes ? 
To anyone who has visited the Grand Fleet there 
must come a sense of pride which is something more than 
the traditional devotion of Englishmen to the Navy, 
and the remembrance of a famous past. The great battle- 
ships far up in the Northern waters, the men who for 
twenty months of nerve-racking strain have kept unim- 
paired their edge and ardour of mind, are indeed a shining 
proof of the might and spirit of fingland. I^ut in the 
task before them to-day there is a higii duty, which their 
forefathers indeed, shared, but which lies upon them now 
with a peculiar gravity. They are the modern crusaders, 
doing battle not only for home and race and fatherland, 
but for the citadel of Christendom. 
FRENCH RED GROSS 
\'erdun is a name henceforth immortal in history. When 
the full story of the gallant defence by our .-\Uies comes to 
be written, it will be found to rank among the most heroic 
deeds in the long annals of war. The French battalions 
have withstood the onslaught of German forces often four 
and five times their numerical stcength. The tornado of 
shells has been appalling, but nothing has been able. to break 
the steadfastness of the defenders or to daunt their courageous 
spirit. The losses inflicted on the enemy liave been stupen- 
dous, and though compared with them the French casualty 
lists may appear light, nevertheless a heav\- jirice has liad to 
be paid, and at the moment the resources of the French Ked 
Cross Society are severely strained. 
Now is the time when we at home mav testify to our 
admiration of hrench bravery in a practical manner. Tlie 
London Conmhttee of the French Ked Cross Society, of which 
the l'"rcnch Ambassador in London is President, will welcome 
gifts of clothing, food, comforts, drugs, surgical stores and, 
above all, money. This Society is admirably rontrolled and 
managed. Money is of course esjjecially needed, for (he work 
of the Society is necessarily limited by the funds at its dis|)osal. 
We have always to remember t'lat many of the richest indus- 
trial districts of France arc in the liands of the invader, where- 
fore our Allies are heavily handicapped in the voluntary sup- 
port they would naturally render to their Red Cross Society. 
It is for us to make good this loss in so far as money can do so. 
Send at once a contribution, however humble it may be, 
as a token of gratitude and affection for France, to the Corr- 
mittee of the French Red Cross, 9, Knightsbridge, London, S.W. 
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