HC Deb 17 November 1914 vol 68 cc314-7
31. Sir GILBERT PARKER

asked the Prime Minister whether, in view of the anxiety of public opinion in the United States with regard to the search for belligerent reservists in American vessels, the declaration of oil and copper as contraband, and the mining of the North Sea, he will make a general explanatory statement of the policy of His Majesty's Government on these subjects?

The PRIME MINISTER (Mr. Asquith)

I will deal in turn with each of the matters referred to in the question:—

(1) Enemy Reservists.

In view of the action taken by the German forces in Belgium and France, where they have arrested and removed as prisoners of war all male inhabitants of military age, His Majesty's Government have found it necessary to give instructions that all enemy subjects liable to military service who may be found on board neutral vessels shall be made prisoners of war. This instruction applies to neutral vessels under whatever flag. As a matter of fact, no case has, so far as I am aware, occurred where enemy reservists have been found in United States ships.

(2) Oil and Copper.

As regards oil and copper, His Majesty's Government have reliable information that in the present circumstances any oil, copper, and certain other substances that may be imported into Germany or Austria will certainly be used exclusively for warlike purposes, and His Majesty's Government have for this reason felt justified in adding those items to the list of absolute contraband. Every possible care is being taken to ensure that oil and copper bonâ fide intended for neutral countries should not be interfered with.

(3) Mines.

From the commencement of the War the German naval authorities resorted to the indiscriminate laying of mines in large numbers in the North Sea outside territorial limits. The mines were laid upon the trade routes without regard for the safety of peaceful shipping, and in furtherance of no definite military operation, their purpose being clearly to endanger trade with Great Britain. There is good reason to suppose that in many cases they were laid by fishing vessels disguised as neutral, and ostensibly following their ordinary pursuits.

These proceedings, besides violating the principle of the freedom of the seas for peaceful trading, constituted a breach of the 8th Hague Convention of 1907, which was duly signed and ratified by Germany, in the following respects:—1. The mines were not so constructed as to become harmless on breaking adrift from their moorings. 2. No precautions whatever were taken for the security of peaceful shipping. The mines were not kept under observation, and no steps were taken to notify the danger zones by a notice to mariners.

As a result of these proceedings, a number of British and neutral merchant and fishing vessels have been lost, as well as many lives of neutral and non-combatant persons.

His Majesty's Government deliberately abstained, and abstained entirety, from the use of mines during the first two months of the War outside British territorial waters, but eventually found it necessary to adopt counter measures in order to cope with the German policy of mine-laying combined with their submarine activities. A mine field was, therefore, laid across the southern portion of the North Sea in such a way as to guard the approaches to the English Channel, and due public warning was given in accordance with The Hague Convention.

In the last week of October the Germans succeeded in laying a mine field off the north coast of Ireland on the main trade route from America to Liverpool via the North of Ireland. More peaceful merchant ships were blown up and lives lost. But for the warnings given by British cruisers, other British and neutral merchant and passenger steamers would have been destroyed. These mines could not have been laid by any German ship of war, nor any vessel under the German flag. They could only have been laid by some merchant vessel flying a neutral flag, which must have come along the trade route as if for the purpose of peaceful commerce and, while profiting to the full by the immunity enjoyed by neutral merchant ships, wantonly and recklessly endangered the lives of all who travel on the sea, regardless of whether they were friend or foe, civilian or military in character.

The menace to peaceful shipping presented by these wholly illegal methods of waging war is so great that His Majesty's Government have been compelled to adopt the only possible means of protection, namely, to declare the whole North Sea to be a military area, and to restrict all shipping crossing it to a narrow passage along which the strictest supervision can be exercised. Access to the coasts of Great Britain and neutral countries has thus been made as safe as is in the power of the British Navy to make it, and although this has been done at the price of certain inconvenience and delay to shipping through its inability to follow its accustomed routes, the price cannot in the circumstances of the case be considered a high one.

His Majesty's Government are fully aware of the anxiety prevailing in the United States and other neutral countries on these subjects, and they trust that their policy will be fully understood. They are confident that public opinion in neutral countries will appreciate their earnest desire that there should be no interference with neutral trade, provided the vital interests of Great Britain, which are at stake in the present conflict, are adequately maintained.

Any interference by the British Navy is directed not to increase British trade, or to diminish the trade of any neutral foreign country, but solely to prevent goods from reaching the enemy which would increase his power in the War against the British and allied forces.