crew or weapons on board for the purpose of any kind of
hostilities, should doubtless, according to general law, be liable to
destruction without notice. The Austrian Government need not go into
the question of how far a belligerent is released from any obligation
as to provision for safety of human life when his opponent sinks enemy
merchant vessels without such previous warning, as in the well-known
cases, previously referred to, of the _Elektra_, _Dubrovnik_,
_Zagreb_, etc., since, in this respect, despite its evident right, the
Austrian Government itself has never returned like for like.
Throughout the entire course of the war Austro-Hungarian warships have
not destroyed a single enemy merchant vessel without previous warning,
though this may have been of a general character.

The theory of the Union Government, frequently referred to, also
admits of several interpretations; the question arises, for instance,
whether, as has frequently been maintained, only armed resistance can
be held to justify destruction of ship and persons on board, or
whether the same applies to resistance of another sort, as, for
example, when the crew purposely refrain from getting the passengers
into the boats (the case of the _Ancona_), or when the passengers
themselves decline to enter the boats. In the opinion of the Austrian
Government cases such as those last should also justify destruction of
the vessel without responsibility for the lives of those on board, as
otherwise it would be in the power of anyone on the vessel to deprive
the belligerent of his right to sink the ship. For the rest it should
also be borne in mind that there is no unanimity of opinion really as
to when the destruction of enemy merchant tonnage is justifiable at
all.

The obligation as to issuing a warning immediately before sinking a
vessel will, in the view of the Austrian Government on the one hand,
involve hardships otherwise avoidable, while, on the other, it may in
certain circumstances be calculated to prejudice the rightful
interests of the belligerent. In the first place it cannot be denied
that saving lives _at sea_ is nearly always a matter of blind
uncertainty, since the only alternatives are to leave them on board a
vessel exposed to the operations of the enemy, or to take them off in
small boats to face the dangers of the elements. It is, therefore,
far more in accordance with the dictates of humanity _to restrain
people from venturing upon vesse