ch also has not
ratified, had become a belligerent, declined to deprive a German
shipowner of an indulgence to which he was entitled under the Sixth
Hague Convention.

Admiral von Tirpitz was perhaps not serious when he intimated to the
representative of the United Press of America that German submarines
might be instructed to torpedo all trading vessels of the Allies which
approach the British coasts. The first duty of a ship of war which
proposes to sink an enemy vessel is admittedly, before so doing, to
provide for the safety of all its occupants, which (except in certain
rare eventualities) can only be secured by their being taken on board of
the warship. A submarine has obviously no space to spare for such an
addition to its own staff.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, December 26 (1914).

The charitable view taken in the last paragraph has, of course,
not been justified.

For the _Moewe_, see 2 Lloyd, 70. On the restrictive article in
The Hague Convention, _cf. passim_.

"THE PIRATES"

Sir,--Would it not be desirable, in discussing the execrable tactics of
the German submarines, to abandon the employment of the terms "piracy"
and "murder," unless with a distinct understanding that they are used
merely as terms of abuse?

A ship is regarded by international law as "piratical" only if, upon the
high seas, she either attacks other vessels, without being commissioned
by any State so to do (_nullius Principis auctoritate_, as Bynkershoek
puts it), or wrongfully displaces the authority of her own commander.
The essence of the offence is absence of authority, although certain
countries, for their own purposes, have, by treaty or legislation, given
a wider meaning to the term, e.g., by applying it to the slave-trade.
"Murder" is such slaying as is forbidden by the national law of the
country which takes cognizance of it.

In ordering the conduct of which we complain, Germany commits an
atrocious crime against humanity and public law; but those who, being
duly commissioned, carry out her orders, are neither pirates nor
murderers. The question of the treatment appropriate to such persons,
when they fall into our hands, is a new one, needing careful
consideration. In any case, it is not for us to rival the barbarism of
their Government by allowing them to drown.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, March 13 (1915)

SUBMARINE CREWS

Sir,--My