A war zone in the present conflict was first declared by Great Britain on October 13, 1914, when an Admiralty announcement stated that His Majesty's Government had authorized a mine laying policy in certain areas, and that it would be dangerous for ships to cross these limits. This was simply a notice to mariners but three weeks later (November 3rd), the Admiralty announced that since the Germans had scattered mines indiscriminately on the main trade route from America to Liverpool via the North of Ireland with the subsequent destruction of innocent ships (and the White Star Liner Olympic had had a lucky escape), it would be "necessary to adopt exceptional measures appropriate to the novel conditions under which this war is being waged." Notice was therefore given

"that the whole of the North Sea must be considered a military area. Within this area merchant shipping Admiralty affecting to make the North Sea 'a military area.' All that such a declaration can effect is to put neutrals on guard: to inform them that their presence in such waters will be regarded as suspicious, and that, when navigating there, they will be more than ordinarily liable to charges of contraband trading or of unneutral service. Probably no more is meant.'' T. Baty and J. H. Morgan, War: Its Conduct and Legal Results, pp. 224-225.

of all kinds, traders of all countries, fishing craft, and all other vessels will be exposed to the gravest dangers from mines which it has been necessary to lay, and from warships searching vigilantly by night and day for suspicious craft. All merchant and fishing vessels of every description are hereby warned of the dangers they encounter by entering this area except in strict accordance with Admiralty directions. Every effort will be made to convey this warning to neutral countries and to vessels on the sea, but from the 5th of November onward the Admiralty announce that all ships passing a line drawn from the northern point of the Hebrides through the Faroe Islands to Iceland do so at their own peril."

Ships wishing to trade with Norway, Denmark, Holland, etc., were advised to come by the English Channel where they would be given sailing directions for a safe passage. Adherence to the routes advised would permit commerce to reach its destination, "so far as Great Britain is concerned, but any straying even for a few miles from the course thus indicated, may be followed by fatal consequences." In a statement made to the House of Commons on November 17th, Mr. Asquith said that for the first two months of the war Great Britain had ab

stained absolutely from the use of mines outside of British territorial waters; but Germany, the Admiralty declared, using a merchant vessel flying a neutral flag had sowed mines indiscriminately, and thus "wantonly and recklessly endangered the lives of all who travel on the sea regardless of whether they are friend or foe, civilian or military in character." A counter measure was therefore necessary.

Against this action, the United States entered no protest. But, while the wisdom of acquiescence seems doubtful, and while even by the British measure the lives of noncombatants were endangered, England's command of the seas enabled her to afford pilots to American ships and to reduce to a minimum the possibility of disaster so far as the mines laid by her were concerned. And England, it should be remembered, expressed the desire to safeguard neutral interests in every possible manner, and notified neutrals of the dangerous area in accordance with the Hague Convention. The German mine laying was surreptitious and was denied, but that it was prior to the British measure seemed established. The German "war

zone decree," however, which marked the beginning of the controversy with the United States, was of a much more sinister character.

Late in 1914 Admiral Von Tirpitz said that the submarine would be used to sink merchant vessels in British waters, but the rules of international law enumerating the exceptional cases in which prizes might be destroyed-the safety of passengers and crew always being an indispensable sine qua non-were so definite, and the considerations of humanity so potent, that such a procedure was almost unthinkable, and so not much attention was paid to the German admiral's announcement. On February 4, 1915, however, there was issued the proclamation decreeing the destruction of merchant vessels by submarines. It read as follows:

"1. The waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland including the whole English Channel are hereby declared to be war zone. On and after the 18th of February, 1915, every enemy merchant ship found in the said war zone will be destroyed without its being always possible to avert the danger threatening the crews and passengers on that account.

"2. Even neutral ships are exposed to danger in the war zone as in view of the misuse of neutral

flags ordered on January 31st by the British Government and of the accidents of naval war, it cannot always be avoided to strike even neutral ships in attacks that are directed at enemy ships.

"3. Northward navigation around the Shetland Islands, in the eastern waters of the North Sea and in a strip of not less than 30 miles width along the Netherlands coast is in no danger."

A memorial of the Imperial German Government accompanying this proclamation frankly justified it as a retaliatory measure for Great Britain's interferences with German trade. Long afterward (March, 1916) the ground of defense was shifted and it was claimed that the use of the submarine against private vessels could not be illegal because, the weapon being a new one, there were no rules on the subject. But this obviously fallacious argument—to be considered more in detail later -was not advanced by the original German memorial. This alleged many violations of international law on the part of Great Britain: the repudiation of the Declaration of London; the extension of contraband lists; the abandonment of the distinction between absolute and