letter in _The Times_ of March 15 with reference to the conduct
of certain of the German submarines has been followed by a good many
other letters upon the same subject. Some of your correspondents have
travelled far from the question at issue into the general question of
permissible reprisals, into which I have no intention of following them.
But others, by exhibiting what I may venture to describe as an
_ignoratio elenchi_, have made it desirable to recall attention to the
specific purport of my former letter. It was to the effect--(1) that the
acts of those who, in pursuance of a Government commission, sink
merchant vessels without warning are not "piracy," the essence of that
offence at international law being that it is committed under no
recognised authority; and that neither is it "murder" under English law;
(2) that the question of the treatment appropriate to the perpetrators
of such acts, even under the orders of their Government, is a new one,
needing careful consideration. I was, of course, far from stating, as a
general rule, that Government authority exempts all who act under it
from penal consequences. The long-established treatment of spies is
sufficient proof to the contrary.

I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND.
Oxford, March 22 (1915).

MR. WILSON'S NOTE

Sir,--I may perhaps be permitted to endorse every word of the high
praise bestowed in your leading article of this morning upon the Note
addressed to Germany by the Government of the United States. The
frequent mentions which it contains of "American ships," "American
citizens," and the like, were, no doubt, natural and necessary, as
establishing the _locus standi_ of that Government in the controversy
which it is carrying on. But we find also in the Note matters of even
more transcendent interest, relating to the hitherto universally
accepted doctrines of international law, applicable to the treatment of
enemy as well as of neutral vessels.

It may suffice to cite the paragraph which assumes as indisputable

"the rule that the lives of non-combatants, whether they be
of neutral citizenship or citizens of one of the nations at
war, cannot lawfully or rightfully be put in jeopardy by the
capture or destruction of unarmed merchantmen,"

as also

"the obligation to take the usual precaution of visit and
search to ascertain whether a suspected merchantman is in
fact of belligerent nationa