Thomas Barclay

“ PACIFIC BLOCKADE, a term invented by Hautefeuille, the French writer on International Maritime Law, to describe a blockade exercised by a great power for the purpose of bringing pressure to bear on a weaker state without actual war. That it is an act of violence, and therefore in the nature of war, is undeniable, seeing that it can only be employed as a measure of coercion by maritime powers able to bring into action such vastly superior forces to those the resisting state can dispose of that resistance is out of the question. ”

“ On the 20th of October 1884 Admiral Courbet declared a blockade of all the ports and road steads between certain specified points of the island of Formosa. The British government protested that Admiral Coubert had not enough ships to render the blockade effective, and that it was therefore a violation of one of the articles of the Declaration of Paris of 1856; moreover, that the French government could only interfere with neutral vessels violating the blockade if there was a state of war. If a state of war existed, England as a neutral was bound to close her coaling stations to belligerents. ”

“ In this respect it is an act of war, and any attempt to exercise it against a power strong enough to resist would be a commencement of hostilities, and at once bring into play the rights and duties affecting neutrals. On the other hand, the object and justification of a pacific blockade being to avoid war, that is general hostilities and disturbance of international traffic with the state against which the operation is carried on, rights of war cannot consistently be exercised against ships belonging to other states than those concerned. ”