He asked me why we had done nothing to England because
of her alleged violations of international law,--why we had not
broken the British blockade.
In addition to the technical arguments based on international
law, I answered that no note of the United States had made any
general charge of barbarism against Germany; that we complained
of the manner of the use of submarines and nothing more; that we
could never promise to do anything to England or to any other
country in return for a promise from Germany or any third country
to keep the rules of international law and respect the rights and
lives of our citizens; that we were only demanding our rights
under the recognised rules of international law and it was for
us to decide which rights we would enforce first; that, as I
had already told the Chancellor, if two men entered my grounds
and one stepped on my flower beds and the other killed my sister,
I should probably first pursue the murderer of my sister; that
those travelling on the seas in enemy merchant ships were in a
different position from those travelling in a cart behind the
enemy's battle lines on land because the land travellers were
on enemy's territory, while those on the sea were on territory
which, beyond the three-mile limit, was free and in no sense
enemy's territory.
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