it will be remembered that about the beginning of the war Herr Hitler announced that the Reich was in possession of a weapon which it could use, and which the Allies would not be able to use against it. The sinking of the Simon Bolivar, Netherlander, Carica Milica, Lithuanian, Borjesson, Swedish, Grazia, Italian, and Blackhill, British,—four neutrals for one British vessel!—suggests that Herr Hitler was indulging in no empty bragging, but really had in mind the use of submarine mines in circumstances completely unlawful. Of course the use of such methods of warfare will remain the exclusive process of the Reich, for no decent self-respecting nation would descend to such depths. And so from the initial stroke against the Athenia, the Nazi navy is becoming more and more entangled in the web of sheer wickedness, until mines are laid without any notification in a channel followed by merchant shipping, both British and neutral, and laid undoubtedly for the specific purpose of destroying such shipping. The British Admiralty has right on its side when it declares that "the sinking of the Netherlands' ship Simon Boliver off the east coast of England is a further example of the utter disregard of international law and dictates of humanity shown by present-day Germany." Beyond merely reporting the actual fact of the sinking of the Simon Bolivar the German news agencies have preserved a significant silence. It has not even been suggested that after all it was Great Britain who was responsible for the tragedy, and the strangely-eloquent reticence of Germany in this respect can be taken either as an admission of guilt, or a failure to think up some new story plausibly placing responsibility at other doors but her own. It is no longer possible to accuse Mr. Winston Churchill of complicity in the outrages, for the destruction of such shipping, whether British or neutral, is so clearly against British interests that to do so would be to describe him as deficient of those very mental qualities by reason of which the Nazis so cordially hate and fear him. No, the German official reticence is highly significant, and as the days pass the chance of making any acceptable explanation diminishes.
The facts of the case are clear enough. Far from laying strategically defensive mine fields, properly notified, and with every possible care taken to ensure the safety of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.