"THE PARTING OF THE WAYS"
"The Parting of the Ways" (Extract from Speech in the United States Senate, April 4, 1917) IT IS GERMANY'S INSISTENCE upon her right to blindly destroy with mines and submarines, in the area she...
...And so forth...
...How will our own people regard it, when they come to understand it...
...that is to say, that of not furnishing to either party implements merely of war, for the annoyance of the other, no"r anything whatever to a place blockaded by its enemy...
...We should not seek to hide our blunder behind the smoke of battle, to inflame the mind of our people by half truths into the frenzy of war, in order that they may never appreciate the real cause of it until it is too late...
...That is the sensible, that is the logical position...
...The same author points out that a neutral cannot permit one belligerent to do what another is not permitted to do...
...to carry the produce of their industry, fur exchange, to all nations, belligerent or neutral, as usual...
...This act, too, tends directly to draw us from that .state' of peace in which we are wishing to remain...
...One restriction on those mutual rights has been submitted to by nations at peace...
...The principal exceptions to this rule are that neutral...
...I find the note warning Germany that she would be held to a "strict accountability" for violation of our neutral rights...
...But a singular thing transpired...
...and if she refused we would be justi-fied in going to war about it...
...Further, he says: "Were we to withhold from her (France) supplies of provisions, we should in like manner be bound to withhold them from her enemies also, and thus shut to ourselves all the ports of Europe where corn is in demand or make ourselves parties in the war...
...When England, having previously violated all neutral rights on the high seas, mined the North Sea and asserted the right to blindly destroy—ne of two coand mines can only destroy blindly—all ships that traversed it, ourses was open to us...
...The English mines are intended to destroy without warning every ship that enters the war zone she has proscribed, killing or drowning every passenger that cannot find some means of escape...
...and give notice that we will enforce those rights from that time forth against both belligerents—and then live up to that notice...
...In an address delivered by the President at a joint session of the two Houses of Congress on February 3, 1917, and referring to the reply which our government had made to Germany's protest that her enemies were permitted to apply unlawful methods of naval warfare while she was held by us to the strict rules of naval warfare, the President said that Germany had been advised as follows: "In order, however, to avoid any possible misunderstanding, the Government of the United States notifies the Imperial Government that it cannot for a moment entertain, much less discuss, a suggestion that respect by German naval authorities for the rights of citizens of the United States upon the high seas should in any way or in the slightest degree be made contingent upon the conduct of any other Government affecting the rights of neutrals and non-combatants...
...The right way is the honorable way...
...Oppenheim on International Law says: "Since neutrality is an attitude of impartiality, it excludes such assistance and succor to one of the belligerents as is detrimental to the other, and, further, such injuries to the one as benefit the other...
...The record which I have presented is but a hasty sketch, but it proves the truth of my words...
...You cannot distinguish between the principle which allowed England to mine a large area of the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea in order to shut in Germany, and the principle on which Germany by her submarines seeks to destroy all shipping which enters the war zone which she has laid out around the British Isles...
...The mere suggestion that food supplies would be withheld from both sides impartially would compel belligerents to observe the principles of freedom of the seas for neutral commerce...
...Had the plain principle of international law announced by Jefferson been followed by us, we would not be called on to-day to declare war upon any of the belligerents...
...It misstates the law...
...to go and come freely without injury or molestation, and, in short, that the war among others shall be, for them, as if it did not exist...
...and we from early in the war threw our neutrality to the winds by permitting England to make a mockery of it to her advantage against her chief enemy...
...There can be no greater violation of our neutrality than the requirement that one of two belligerents shall adhere to the settled principles of law and that the other shall have the advantage of not doing so...
...The Parting of the Ways" (Extract from Speech in the United States Senate, April 4, 1917) IT IS GERMANY'S INSISTENCE upon her right to blindly destroy with mines and submarines, in the area she has declared a war zone, all ships that enter there, that causes the whole trouble existing between us and Germany today...
...If we had not done so we lost our character as a neutral nation, and our people unfortunately Lad lost the protection that belongs to neutrals...
...In this letter, under date of September 7 1793, Secretary Jefferson said: "The first article of it (the British order) permits all vessels laden wholly or in part with corn, (lour or meal, bound to any port in France, to be stoppec" and sent, into any British port, to be purchased bj that Government or to be released only on the con dition of security given by the master that he will proceed to dispose of his cargo in the ports of some country in amity with his majesty...
...both must equally obey the principles of international law...
...The other alternative is to withdraw our commerce from BOTH...
...No neutrality could ever have commanded respect, if it was not based on that equitable and just proposition...
...That phrase the President has used repeatedly in his addresses...
...In the early days of the conflict in this matter of the war zones of each belligerent, in submitting to Great Britain's dictation concerning what might be treated as contraband—resulting finally in a practical cessation of shipping to German ports—we have done Germany as much harm as though we hid landed an army in France to fight beside the entente allies...
...This article is so manifestly contrary to the law of nations that nothing more would seem necessary thau to observe that it is so...
...We chose to acquiesce...
...She would consider this as a mere pretext, of which she would not be the dupe...
...That thing.no nation can do without losing its character as a neutral nation and without losing the rights that go with strict and absolute neutrality...
...He has used it at least three times, I think, and he has referred to it as being a complete and sufficient answer to this proposition...
...Xeutrals in their own country may sell to belligerents whatever belligerents choose to buy...
...I suppose all Senators have secured the published copies of the diplomatic correspondence which has been issued by the State Department...
...I am talking now about principles...
...Jefferson, then Secretary of State, in writing to Thomas Pinckney, United States Minister to Great Britain, regarding England's stoppage of our food shipments to France, with whom England was then at war, dealt with precisely the same situation that confronts President Wilson in the war between Germany and England, but Secretary Jefferson dealt with the situation in precisely the opposite manner from, that adopted by President Wilson...
...How much less was it obnoxious to the law of nations than mining the great area of the North Sea...
...In the case of "Resolution" it is said that the idea of a neutral nation "implies two nations at war and a third in friendship with both...
...This is a dilemma which Great Britain has no right to force upon us, and for which no pretext can be found in any part of our conduct...
...The respect that German naval authorities were required to pay to the rights of our people upon the high seas would depend ixpon the question whether we had exacted the same rights from Germany's enemies...
...The court says: "Neutral trade is entitled to protection in all courts...
...The best and clearest exposition of the exact question, however, was made long ago by one of the greatest Democrats and statesmen of tins country—Thomas Jefferson...
...I find them arrayed...
...If we do that and are obliged to enter the war to enforce our rights, that war will not be against Germany...
...To restrain it would be a partiality which might lead to war with France, and, between restraining it ourselves and permitting her enemies to restrain it unrightfully is no difference...
...We can never justify it...
...it asserts a principle that cannot be maintained for one moment with a decent regard for equal rights between nations with whom we are dealing upon a basis of neutrality...
...It is not enough for a nation to say, 'We and our friends will buy your produce.' We have a right to answer that it suits us better to sell to their enemies as well aa their friends...
...Undoubtedly, if those nations were not at war with each other we could suffer one to violate international law to our injury and make no protest and take no action against the naticn so offending and hold the other to strict accountability and compel her to respect to the limit our rights under international law...
...When two nations are at war any neutral nation, in order to preserve its character as a neutral nation, MUST EXACT THE SAME CONDUCT FROM BOTH WARRING NATIONS...
...The Present Administration has assumed and acted upon the policy that it could enforce to the very letter of the law the principles of international law against one belligerent and relax them as to the other...
...The failure to treat the belligerent nations of Europe alike, the failure to reject the unlawful "war zones" of BOTH Germany a"ad Great Eritain is wholly accountable for our present dilemma...
...But when we are dealing with Germany and Great Britain warring against each other, so evenly balanced in strength that a little help to one or a little hindrance to the otber turns the scale and spells victory for one and defeat for the other,—In that situation I say the principle of international law steps in which declares that ANY FAILURE ON OUR PART TO ENFORCE OUR RIGHTS EQUALLY AGAINST BOTH IS A GROSS ACT OF UNNEU-TRALITY...
...Jefferson asserted that we could not permit one warring nation to curtail our neutral rights if we were not ready to allow her enemy the same privileges, and that any other course entailed the sacrifice of our neutrality...
...It is neither more nor less than that which Germany tries to do with her submarines in her war zone...
...It is for this, and this only, that we are urged to make war...
...In the case of the "Bermuda" the Supreme Court of the United States points out that neutrality involves absolute equality of treatment...
...But you will search in vain these volumes for a copy of the British order in council mining the North Sea...
...That is precisely what we have done, as I have shown...
...OUR RESPONSIBILITY WAS JOINT IN THE SENSE THAT WE MUST EXACT THE SAME CONDUCT FROM BOTH BELLIGERENTS...
...J. Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, on May 19, 1818, said: "By the usual principles of international law the state of neutrality recognizes the cause of both parties to the contest as JUST—that is, it avoids all consideration of the merits of the contest...
...WE ACQUIESCED IN ENGLAND'S ACTION WITHOUT PROTEST...
...He says...
...and on what honorable groundt could we otherwise explain it...
...No principle of international law is better settled than that which is stated by Oppenheim, the great English authority on international law...
...Responsibility in such matters is single, not joint...
...She may, indeed, feel the desire of starving an enemy nation, but she can have no right of doing it at our loss, nor of making us the instruments of it" And with a firmness which it would have been well had the present Administration emulated, it is said: "It is with concern, however, I am obliged to observe that so marked has been the inattention of tha British court to every application which has been made to them on any subject by this Government (not a single answer, I believe, having ever been given to one of them, except in the act of exchanging a minister) that it may become unavoidable in certain cases, where an answer of some sort is necessary, to consider their silence as an answer...
...Thus we should see ourselves plunged by this unauthorized act of Great Britain into a war with which, we meddle not, and which we wish to avoid, if justice to all parties, and from all parties, will enable us to avoid it...
...demand that both those nations shall respect our neutral rights upon the high seas to the letter...
...Here is the parting of the ways...
...If a neutral nation fails in that, then its rights upon the high seas—to adopt the President's phrase>—are relative and not absolute...
...absolute, not relative...
...must not sell to one belligerent what they refuse to sell to the other...
...We have a right to judge for ourselves what market best suits us, and they have none to forbid to us the enjoyment of the necessaries and comforts which we may obtain from any other independent country...
...Yet in asserting this right or in sinking the ships in the proscribed area without warning, Germany is doing only that which England is doing in her proscribed area, WITH OUR CONSENT...
...It is an essential character of neutrality to furnish no aids (not stipulated by treaty) to one party which we are not equally ready to furnish to the other, if we permit corn to be sent to Great Britain and her friends, we' are equally bound to permit ifcto France...
...In the same letter Jefferson says: "The loss of our produce destined for foreign markets or that loss which would result from an arbitrary restraint of our markets is a tax too serious for us to acquiesce in...
...One alternative is to admit our initial blunder to enforce our rights against Great Britain as wo have enforced our rights against Germany...
...I find all the correspondence about the submarines of Germany...
...How will history regard this conduct of ours...
...I do not believe that our national honor is served by such a course...
...At this point, Sir, I say, with all deference, but with the absolute certainty of conviction, that the present Administration made a fatal mistake, and if war comes to this country with . Germany for the present causes, it will be due wholly to that mistake...
...IT IS PROPOSED THAT WE NOW GO TO WAR WITH GERMANY FOR IDENTICALLY THE SAME ACTION UPON HER PART...
...The offenses of Great Britain and Germany against us cannot be treated as they might be treated if these nations were not at war with each other...
...Neutrality as an attitude of impartiality involves the duty of abstaining from assisting either belligerent either actively or passively...
...Reason and usage," continued Jefferson, "have established that when two nations go to war those who choose to live in peace, retain their natural right to pursue their agriculture, manufactures, and other ordinary vocations...
Vol. 9 • April 1917 • No. 4
