Francis Taylor Piggott

“ Hidden in that imagined ‘freedom,’ and the ‘rules’ which have been suggested to ensure it, lies the power of the Strong to make one final war upon the Weak on land, and the end of it the annihilation of the Small Nations; for it means this, that when they are attacked they must defend themselves without help in munitions of war from neutral merchants across the sea. ”

“ This Government takes it for granted that there can be no question what those rights are. A nation’s sovereignty over its own ships and citizens under its own flag on the high seas in time of peace is, of course, unlimited. And that sovereignty suffers no diminution in times of war except in so far as the practice and consent of civilised nations have limited it by the recognition of certain now clearly determined rights which it is conceded may be exercised by nations which are at war. ”

“ In view of what remains to be said, it is of great importance to appreciate that the incarnation of sea-power, blockade, which cuts the enemy off absolutely from the outer world, lies at one end of the scale of what one belligerent may do to the other, and the seizure of contraband on a neutral ship going to an enemy port, which cuts the enemy off but partially, lies at the other end. ”

“ We have the misfortune to live in days when, in the name of liberalism, philanthropy, and civilisation, we are invited to upset the whole fabric of international law which the reason of jurists has designed and the usage of nations has built up, and to rear upon its ruins the trumpery edifice of a shallow caprice. ”

“ On the contrary it seems, for a hundred years, to have successfully blinded men by its technical conditions to the fact that the so-called right to declare a blockade is no more than a declaration of an intention by a belligerent to stop all supplies from going to the enemy, and stopping them. Is it not abundantly clear that that intention cannot be nullified by the cleverness of the neutral merchant in ‘darkening and disguising’ the fact that they are going to the enemy? ”

“ And again, ‘when the neutral Sovereign has withdrawn from his subjects engaged in such a trade the protection of his flag, he has discharged the whole duty of neutrality.’ [42] To withdraw protection from the merchant when he sets out on his risky adventure, to abandon him during his adventuring to the exercise of sea-power by a belligerent which it is admitted he must exercise because he is at war, is inconsistent with any notion of concession. A neutral vessel carrying contraband is in no better case than if she wore no flag. ”

“ These passionately exhort the Government of the States to control by domestic legislation its merchants’ commerce with the Allies, because the British Fleet in its right of war is controlling their commerce with Germany. The German Admiralty has substituted piracy for war on the sea; and now, powerless to enforce its war right, it struggles to achieve the same results by the devious process of an American embargo. To enforce their rights of war nations sacrifice the lives of men; Germany to make good her lost rights is willing to sacrifice a friendly State. ”

“ You allow yourselves rather ‘to be influenced in the direction of conscious wilful restriction’ (in other words, you submit to having your cargoes seized by Great Britain) . Of course you have the right to take no steps to protect your legitimate trade with Germany, and you take none (in other words, you refuse to resist the seizures of your cargoes by force) ; that is ‘the toleration of wrong.’ And so you cease to trade with Germany. But you have also a perfect right to cease trading in contraband (especially in arms) with Great Britain. Why don’t you? ”

“ The Meaning of Neutrality
At the outbreak of war the nations are divided into two classes: those that are fighting and those that are not. To give them their scientific names, they are belligerents and neutrals. With the laws of war I do not concern myself, but only with those principles by which neutrals are supposed to govern themselves in order to avoid being swept into the vortex. ”

“ If a Fleet is a legitimate weapon of offence and defence for nations whose borders are on the sea, then the fortune of one aspect of war between them must rest with the superior Fleet, and when war does come the imagined equality of the sea, whether for belligerents or for neutrals who cross the track of it, vanishes. ”

“ But there is another and very practical reason in favour of my second contention. Too strenuous a protest is apt to make men look a little below the surface of mere words, to turn their attention curiously to trade statistics. They have been dexterously handled in the British answers. A neutral Government is not the best judge of its merchants’ claims; inevitably it becomes their advocate, and in the tangle of discussion is apt to identify itself with commercial transactions which, it is common knowledge, often need the closest investigation. ”

“ The Germans, in insisting on this popular idea, are juggling with the word ‘neutrality,’ and they do so in a way which is almost pathetic; yet their version of what they are pleased to call ‘true neutrality’ is so near to plausibleness that I must be at pains to elaborate the real principle. A belligerent has a perfect right to apply the maxim ‘Who helps my enemy becomes my enemy’ to the neutral merchant. But seeing that he is an unarmed civilian he cannot be made to fight. The remedy against him is therefore confiscation of his goods. ”