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Bavarians spoke of Germany and Germany's war-debt with an aloofness as of neutrals. It did not trouble them deeply. They were sceptical as to France's ability to collect a huge indemnity. The fifty per cent tax they regarded as an absurdity. "It is possible to ruin Germany, but it is not possible to enslave her," was the common opinion.
Secondly, in November of the same year, the British Government directed the seizure of "all ships laden with goods the produce of any colony belonging to France, or carrying provisions or other supplies for the use of any such colony." Neutrals were thus forbidden either to go to, or to sail from, any French colony for purposes of commercial intercourse.
There were many brave Englishmen and Frenchmen sharing in the fatigues of the Dutch war of independence, but the governments of Henry and of James were as protective, as severely virtuous, as offensive, and, in their secret intrigues with the other belligerent, as mischievous as it was possible for the best-intentioned neutrals to be.
An Order in Council of January 7th, 1807, forbade neutrals to trade between the ports of France and her allies, or between ports that observed the Berlin Decree, under pain of seizure and confiscation of the ship and cargo. "The sea must be subdued by the land."
"Under these circumstances Germany will meet the illegal measures of her enemies by forcibly preventing after February 1, 1917, in a zone around Great Britain, France, Italy, and in the Eastern Mediterranean all navigation, that of neutrals included, from and to England and from and to France, etc., etc. All ships met within the zone will be sunk."
The eight kinds of open chastisement, as also the eight kinds of secret chastisement, were dealt with in detail. The use and administration of movable and immovable poison were also mentioned in respect of the three kinds of things, viz., wearing apparel, food, and incantations. Enemies, allies, and neutrals, these also were described.
When Caesar thereupon requested the senate at least to be the medium of transmitting his peace proposals to Pompeius, they were not indeed opposed to that course in itself, but the threats of the emigrants against the neutrals had so terrified the latter, that no one was found to undertake the message of peace.
It represents, that, the night after the great battle, the forest was lighted up with more than a thousand fires, at each of which an Erie was burning alive. One enemy of their own race remained, the Andastes. This nation appears to have been inferior in numbers to either the Hurons, the Neutrals, or the Eries; but they cost their assailants more trouble than all these united.
The implied threat that it would be a simple matter for submarines to cross the Atlantic and deal with us as they were dealing with France and England and other Entente nations not to say harmless neutrals such as Holland and Scandinavia was not lost upon the citizens of this country. But, as usual, German judgment in the matter of psychology was astray.
Norway during March, 1917, lost sixty-four ships, during April, 1917, seventy-five; and during May, 1917, forty-nine. On June 25, 1917, it was announced that from the beginning of the war up to that date Norway had lost 572 vessels of 815,000 tons, 431 of these of 680,000 tons being steamers. This made Norway by far the heaviest loser among all neutrals.
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