New York Times, October 25, 1939
NEUTRALS OK THE SEAS
Considering the fact that German
raiders and submarines have already
sunk two dozen neutral vessels in a
war which is less than eight weeks
old, it is not unwarranted to Iviieve
that there is just one reason why the
City of Flint Is at Murmansk today
Instead of at the bottom of the Atlantic
Ocean. She flew the flag, not of one of
the smaller European neutrals whose
protests could be dismissed light-heart-
edly, but of a great Western Power
which Germany was less willing to af-
front.
Certain facts In the case of the City
of Flint are well established. She
sailed from New York on Oct. 3 for
British ports with a cargo described by
our Maritime Commission as "typical
of her usual cargo oh this run." It in-
cluded foodstuffs, cotton and some mis-
cellaneous goods, all of which it was
her right to oarry under the Neutrality
Act In its present form. Somewhere
west of the British Isles she was Inter-
cepted by a German vessel, which
seized h^r and took her into port, first
at Tromsoe, Norway, and then at Mur-
rhansk. Our Government does not chal-
lenge the right of the German Navy
to intercept a neutral vessel, provided
such a vessel is actually carrying con-
traband.' It does, however, question
the right of the German Navy to take
theCity of Flint into the port of a sup-
posedly neutral nation, regardless off
any contraband she might have car-
ried, and to seek her internment there.
Inquiries have been addressed by the
State Department to both Berlin and
They may lead to a clariftca-
i of Russia's position vis-a-vis her
In the conquest of Poland,
itime it Is pointed out in Wash-
ton that it is the purpose of the Admin-
istration's cash-and-carry plan to avoid
incidents of this kind by prohibiting
American ships from entering the Eu-
ropean "combat area-" It is also
pointed out that the City of Flint is riot
the only American vessel which has
been intercepted by a belligerent, and
that the British Government has held
temporarily four or five of our mer-
chant ships in British ports. But the
point to be noted here is that these
ships have been taken by the belligerent
into Its own ports, not into supposedly
neutral territory, and that the British
Government is simply following, its
practice in the last war of conduct
an examination for contraband in
safety of a harbor rather than on
open sea. Our Government object^! to
this practice in 1911, but; so far fa the
record shows, has not found it tc/be an
unreasonable   procedure   during the