The
Government of the United States earnestly protested. It took the
position that such a policy could not be pursued without the practical
certainty of gross and palpable violations of the law of nations,
particularly if submarine craft were to be employed as its instruments,
inasmuch as the rules prescribed by that law, rules founded upon
principles of humanity and established for the protection of the lives
of non-combatants at sea, could not in the nature of the case be
observed by such vessels. It based its protest on the ground that
persons of neutral nationality and vessels of neutral ownership would be
exposed to extreme and intolerable risks, and that no right to close any
part of the high seas against their use or to expose them to such risks
could lawfully be asserted by any belligerent government. The law of
nations in these matters, upon which the Government of the United States
based its protest, is not of recent origin or founded upon merely
arbitrary principles set up by convention. It is based, on the contrary,
upon manifest and imperative principles of humanity and has long been
established with the approval and by the express assent of all civilized
nations.
Pages:
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251