BISMARCK ON " FRIGHTFULNESS " IN NAVAL WARFARE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
Sue—By way of commentary on the practice adopted by Ger- many in the present war of sinking passenger and cargo steamers, belonging to neutral as well as to belligerent countries, without notice or warning of any kind, the following passage may be usefully recalled. It is from a despatch of Count Bismarck's to the German Ambassador in London, dated January 9th, 1871, for communication to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, protesting against methods of warfare alleged to have been adopted by the French military and naval authorities :-
" In the naval warfare the French have likewise scouted inter- national law. The French war-steamer Desaix ' has destroyed, by burning or sinking on the high seas, three German merchantmen which it had captured, the Ludwig,' the Vorwiirts,' and the Charlotte,' instead of taking them to a French port., and obtaining the sentence of a prize court. The German ships will therefom be directed to make reprisals on French ships. It cannot be a matter of surprise that rulers who pay so little. respect to laws and Treaties should have still less scruple in casting aside the customs of modern nations, and in going back to modes of proceeding of long past periods of civilization ' - even sanctioning things which at all times, and in all nations that have any notion, however peculiar, of honour, have been deemed especially disgraceful."—British, and Foreign State Papers, LXI., 985.
°Wry St. Mary.
[If this should meet the eye of the State Department at Washington, &c., &e.—ED. Spectator.]
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