wns, such as Scarborough,
Yarmouth, and Whitby, have been deliberately and wantonly bombarded by
German ships of war, causing in some cases considerable loss of civilian
life, including women and children.

"6. German aircraft have dropped bombs on the east coast of England,
where there were no military or strategic points to be attacked. On the
other hand, I am aware of but two criticisms that have been made on
British action in all these respects:

"1. It is said that the British naval authorities also have laid some
anchored mines on the high seas. They have done so, but the mines were
anchored and so constructed that they would be harmless if they went
adrift, and no mines whatever were laid by the British naval authorities
till many weeks after the Germans had made a regular practice of laying
mines on the high seas.

"2. It is said that the British Government have departed from the view
of international law which they had previously maintained, that
foodstuffs destined for the civil population should never be interfered
with, this charge being founded on the submission to a prize court of
the cargo of the Wilhelmina. The special considerations affecting this
cargo have already been presented in a memorandum to the United States
Government, and I need not repeat them here.

"Inasmuch as the blockade of all foodstuffs is an admitted consequence
of blockade, it is obvious that there can be no universal rule based on
considerations of morality and humanity which is contrary to this
practice. The right to stop foodstuffs destined for the civil population
must therefore in any case be admitted if an effective 'cordon'
controlling intercourse with the enemy is drawn, announced, and
maintained. Moreover, independently of rights arising from belligerent
action in the nature of blockade, some other nations, differing from the
opinion of the Governments of the United States and Great Britain, have
held that to stop the food of the civil population is a natural and
legitimate method of bringing pressure to bear on an enemy country as it
is upon the defense of a besieged town. It is also upheld on the
authority of both Prince Bismarck and Count Caprivi, and therefore
presumably is not repugnant to German morality.

"The following are the quotations from Prince Bismarck and Count Caprivi
on this point. Prince Bismarck in answering, in 1885, an application
from the Kiel Chamber of Commerce for a statement of the view of the