Aussi ces publicistes s'accordent-ils à reconnaître que, de même qu'un blocus ne peut être violé que sur ses lieux et qu'il ne peut pas l'être par le voyage, de même la violation ne peut être poursuivie qu'en flagrant délit, ni avant ni après. Avant, aucune mesure quelconque ne peut légalement être prise contre le navire suspect; et après, aucune mesure ne peut être prise autre que celles qui sont motivées par des circonstances et qui sont censées propres à prolonger la phase du fait, à savoir les saisies soit dans le port même, soit sur la place à la sortie de là, soit enfin sur la haute mer et dans les eaux des belligérants à la seule condition que la poursuite ait commencé au moment du fait et sur la place, et que sa continuation aux dits lieux n'ait pas été interrompue mais puisse être considérée comme une simple suite de l'action dirigée contre le délit pris sur le fait. Au contraire, un navire déjà échappé, dont l'action interdite n'a pas été empêchée ni attaquée sur la place du blocus, et qui n'a pas non plus été poursuivi immédiatement, ne peut pas être attaqué après coup et ailleurs, fût-ce pendant le même voyage. Et une fois dans les ports ou les eaux neutres, il est pour toujours hors de portée de toute poursuite, indépendamment de la fin du voyage. (I Kleen, La Neutralité, p. 639.)

Russian regulations.-The Russian prize regulations of March 27, 1895, Article 11, provides that:

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Merchant vessels of neutral nationality are subject to confiscation as prizes in the following cases: (2) when the vessels are caught violating a blockade and it is not proven that the establishment of the blockade remained unknown to the masters.

In the instructions for the carrying out these regulations it is stated that

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37. Vessels subject to detention are the following: Neutral merchant vessels. an actual and declared blockade.

(2) (3) If they are caught violating

Japanese regulations. The Japanese regulations of March 7, 1904, in general follow English precedents, and give the belligerent more liberty than is customary under continental practice.

ART. XXI. Blockade is to close an enemy's port, bay, or coast with force, and is effective when the force is strong enough to threaten any vessels that attempt to go in or out of the blockaded port or bay or to approach the blockaded coast.

Temporary evacuation of a blockaded area by a squadron or man-ofwar on account of bad weather or to attain the object of the blockade does not interfere with the effectiveness of the blockade.

ART. XXV. In case the master of a vessel receives warning direct from an imperial war vessel, or it is clear that he knows of the existence

of the blockade from official or private information or from any other source, such master shall be considered to have received actual notice of the blockade.

ART. XXXVII. Any vessel that comes under one of the following categories shall be captured no matter of what national character it is: (1) Vessels that carry persons, papers, or goods that are contraband of war. (2) Vessels that carry no ship's papers, or have willfully mutilated or thrown them away, or hidden them, or that produce false papers. (3) Vessels that have violated a blockade.

Consideration at The Hague, 1907.-At the Second Peace Conference at The Hague in 1907, the Italian delegation submitted the following proposition concerning blockade:

1. Le blocus pour être obligatoire doit être effectif, déclaré et notifié. 2. Le blocus est effectif lorsqu'il est maintenu par des forces navales de guerre suffisantes pour interdire réellement le passage, et stationnées de manière à créer un danger évident pour les navires qui voudraient le tenter.

Le blocus n'est pas considéré comme levé si le mauvais temps a forcé les navires bloquants à s'éloigner momentanément de leur station.

3. La déclaration de blocus doit déterminer le moment précis du commencement du blocus, ses limites par longitude et latitude, et le délai dans lequel la sortie du port est permise aux navires neutres entrés avant le commencement du blocus.

4. La déclaration doit être notifiée aux autorités de la place bloquée et aux Gouvernements des Etats neutres.

Si cette notification n'a pas eu lieu, ou si le navire approchant du port bloqué prouve qu'il n'avait pas connaissance du blocus, la notification doit être faite au navire même, par un officier de l'un des bâtiments formant le blocus, et inscrite sur les papiers de bord.

5. Un navire ne peut-être saisi comme coupable de violation de blocus qu'au moment où il tente de franchir les lignes d'un blocus obligatoire.

6. Il est permis aux navires d'entrer dans le port bloqué en cas de détresse constatée par le commandant du blocus.

7. Le navire saisi pour violation de blocus pourra être confisqué ainsi que sa cargaison, à moins que le propriétaire de celle-ci ne prouve que la tentative de violation du blocus a été commise à son insu.

The United States delegation proposed the following amendments:

In Article 3 strike out the words "par longitude et latitude." Substitute for Article 5, as submitted by the Italian delegation, "Tout navire qui, après qu'un blocus a été dûment notifié, fait voile pour un port ou une place bloqués, ou qui essaie de forcer le blocus, peut être saisi pour violation de blocus."

The delegation from Great Britain proposed:

In Article 2 to substitute the word "évident" for "réel."

To follow in Article 3 the amendment suggested by the American delegation.

In Article 4 to substitute for the words "le navire approchant" the words "un navire approchant."

In Article 5 to follow the amendment suggested by the American delegation.

Lieutenant-Colonel van Oordt, of the Netherlands delegation to the Hague Conference of 1907, said of the American doctrine of liability to capture throughout voyage for violation of blockade:

L'extension du droit de capture, contenue dans la proposition américaine, n'est en effet autre chose que l'application de la pratique des blocus fictifs aux blocus effectifs. Accorder au belligérant le droit de saisie sur les navires, qui font voile pour un port bloqué, avant qu'ils n'aient tenté d'y entrer, c'est ajouter au danger imminent du passage de la ligne du blocus (le caractère essentiel du blocus effectif) le danger d'être saisi en pleine mer; c'est au fond: étendre le blocus pour ainsi dire partout en pleine mer où il ne peut pas être effectif; c'est enfin soumettre la saisie au hasard d'une rencontre avec un croiseur de l'Etat bloqueur; ce qui est, d'après les évènements qui ont abouti à la Déclaration de Paris de 1856, en contradiction avec l'idée même du blocus effectif. (4 Commission, le 2 août, 1907.)

Use of tramp steamers. The importance of coming to some decision as to the possible treatment in time of war of what are commonly called "tramp steamers" is evident from the following testimony given before the British Royal Commission on Supply of Food and Raw Material in Time of War in 1904. The conditions of the mercantile marine of the world have remained relatively unchanged since that time, so that the testimony may be taken as applicable to the present time. The chairman of the commission, Lord Balfour, examining Mr. Walter Runciman, M. P., elicits the following:

10259 (chairman). I understand you are a member of the firm of Walter Runciman & Co., of Newcastle-on-Tyne and London, and that you are a part owner and one of the managing directors of a group of companies which own 28 cargo vessels of what are known as the tramp class, varying in size from 4,000 to 6,000 tons dead weight each.--That is so.

10260. I suppose they are engaged on their homeward voyages in carrying raw material and grain to British and northern continental ports, are they not?-Almost entirely.

10261. As a matter of fact, during the last year you did carry over 1,100,000 quarters of grain, of which a considerable portion came to British ports?—Yes; a very large amount of it did.

10262. You are here in consequence of our invitation to you to tell us what you can, not so much as the representative of any association, but as an owner of this class of vessels?—I come purely as a typical tramp owner-not as being authorized by any association.

10263. You know, of course, the circumstances of the British mercantile marine; I understand that, speaking roughly, of the 7,000 steam vessels of any considerable size flying the British flag, about 1,500 are liners and the remainder are tramps?-Yes.

10264. Can you put those figures into tonnage?-I should say that about one-half of the tonnage of the British mercantile marine is tramp tonnage. Of course, that is an approximate figure, but it is arrived at after consultation with the officials of the Shipping Federation and of the Chamber of Shipping, who are the great authorities.

10265. Classified according to their trading, what should you say about these tramps?-It is very difficult to say exactly where they are employed, but I should think that about one-third of them are engaged in the carriage of grain.

10266. Would you say that the smaller vessels would be in the north of Europe, that the medium-sized vessels would be in the Black Sea grain trade, and that the larger boats load homeward from the East, Argentine, and America?-That is approximately correct.

10267. At what kind of average speed do they run?-They are practically 9-knot boats. At the outside under pressure they might get up to 11 knots, but not beyond that.

10268. I suppose they are well loaded up when they come home?— They have practically all full cargoes; tramp steamers can not afford to come with part cargoes.

10269. Of course, with full cargoes they would not be able to go for any length of time at their maximum speed?-No; they go on an average at a 9-knot speed at the present time, because it happens to be the most economical. If they were to increase their speed to 11 knots that would run away with such an immense amount of coal as to diminish their cargo capacity below a profitable level.

10270. In a vessel of that class the advantage of adding a knot an hour to its normal speed is out of proportion to the cost of doing so, is it not? Yes; I should say that the average 6,000-ton tramp, which is a fair sample to take, would burn about 20 tons a day going at 9 knots; if she were forced up to 10 knots she would probably burn 25 tons a day, and if she were forced up to 11 knots about 32 or 35 tons a day.

10271. Which would very nearly run away with all the profit, in addition to the impossibility of a cargo steamer carrying so much coal? Yes.

10272. Assuming for the moment-because that is one of the problems which we are endeavoring to consider that we were at war with a continental power strong at sea, should you anticipate that the apprehensions of captures would lead to a cessation of the tramp steamers plying their voyages?—I do not think that that would be so. I think tramp-steamer owners, on the whole, are quite sporting, and that they are prepared to take risks. They would be paid large freights and would naturally endeavor to take advantage of them.

10273. Then you agree with those witnesses who have told us that the freights would be large?—Yes; they might run up to anything; it depends entirely on the risk of capture.

10274. That would be, of course, largely on account of the cost of insurance? Yes; it would be almost entirely on account of that. There would naturally be a certain amount of excitement among merchants, and a great desire to get cargoes of food and raw materials into this country. That would, of course, have its effect on the freight market, but the main addition would be owing to the cost of insurance.

10275. Even assuming that we maintained command of the sea, do you think that freights would quickly be, as you suggest, tripled or quadrupled?—I think they might quite easily; one or two captures would have a most exciting effect on the insurance market, and as we have seen already that would inflate the cost of carriage enormously. A 10-per-cent insurance rate, for instance, would have a very considerable effect on freights.

10276. Assuming for the moment what is a most important consideration for us that the Atlantic was infested by one or two commerce destroyers of some hostile power, have you the power of modifying your routes from north to south, and so on?-Certainly; we can go anywhere. We do so now; for instance, in the summer months we send our vessels across the Atlantic north about, and in the winter months we send them south about.

Bearing of the Hague conventions.-There is no question that the Warren had knowledge of the existence of the blockade through which she had passed on entering and within which she had been while unloading:

A vessel being in a blockaded port is presumed to have notice of the blockade as soon as it commences. This is the settled law of nations. (2 Black, Prize Cases, 635.)

According to Convention XII, relative to the establishment of an international prize court, a case similar to the one suggested by this situation might easily pass to this court. The convention provides:

ARTICLE I. The validity of the capture of a merchant ship or its cargo is decided before a prize court, in accordance with the present convention when neutral or enemy property is involved.