Similar proclamations were issued from time to time as additional countries entered the war. In addition the -President on 5 August began a series of special proclamations, the first pro hibiting the radio stations from °handling messages of an unneutral nature)) On 14 August a circular was issued in rather uncer tain terms on the liability of former citizens of the belligerent powers to render military service. On the 17th instructions were sent out to diplomatic and consular officers in the belligerent countries. On the 18th an act was approved by the President permitting the registry of foreign-built ships in the United States, thus allowing the acquirement of an American status.
On 15 October the Department defined the attitude of the govenunent on the shipment of contraband, reaffirming the doctrine that there was no duty under international law to prevent such traffic. Many additional proclamations ; set forth the position and the decrees of the government, and the President in public ad- ? dresses insisted on the neutral policy of the country. He even went so far as to issue a proclamation (18 Aug. 1914), in which he urged his fellow countrymen to avoid that ((deepest, most subtle, most essential breach of neutrality whkh may spring out of partisanship or out of passionately taking sides,— we rnust deal impartially in thought as well as in action.* So far as precept could go, the United States did everything that was correct and traditional Difficulties of Neutrality.— Little heed was paid to the President's injunction to preserve a neutrality of thought. Most Americans from the beginning had a strong preference on one side or the other, and two positive causes created a strong current of public feeling against, Germany. These were the occupation of Bel gium in the early days of August; and the• treatment of non-combatants in the portions of Belgium aml France occupied by the German army.
The invasion of Belgium was contrary to the general principle of the right of a nation to remain neutral if it were not concerned in the outbreak of the war; and it was also a gross violation of the obligation of treaties. The contemptuous phrase of the German chan cellor that treaties were "only a scrap of papers was a 'blow at the sanctity of all obligations of nations.
The United States, however, was not a signa tory of the Treaty of 1839 by which both Gerrr_any and Great Britain guaranteed the neutrality of Belgium. The Hague Conventions
on the rights of neutral powers, though signed by the United States, could not be reasonably construed to require this country to make war on Germany. Otherwise the Germans had the legal power to compel the United States to go to war bS, interfering with a third power. The general right of belligerents to keep up com merce with neutral powers is of course subject to and conditioned by their physical ability to protect direct trade in their merchant ships. A few days after the beginning of the war the allied British and French navies showed such an overwhelming superiority at sea that the German shipping which could not reac.h home ports took refuge in any neutral waters that offered. Except on the Baltic and a little coast ing trade in the German Ocean to Holland and die Scandinavian countries, the movement of German merchant ships ceased all over the world. A few German commerce destroyers were let loose, but all of them were eventually captured or driven to port. No transocearuc or Mediterranean commerce could be kept up by the ships of Germany and her allies. This change in the conditions put a strain on Amer ican neutrality. Goods could still be shipped tc Germany in neutral vessels, 'but contraband cargoes were liable to capture by the Allied cruisers. This introduced a complication in the trade in arrns and military supplies which quickly sprang up from the United States. Shippers had the same legal right to ship to Gerrr.any or to England, but none of the Ger man cargoes could reach their destination if contraband; while practically all the English cargoes went safely.
Without altering a syllable of the proclama h dons, without any deviation from the received principles of international law, this state of things was very advantageous to the Allies as against the Central Powers. As a great ex porter it was clearly the interest of the United States to claim a liberal construction of contra band. Cargoes of food not earmarked for \military consumption were considered in the ..United States to be free from capture; and, if I sent in American bottoms, also fr e from s ch or detention, even if pal or. e Allied tralliferryt• once began to create difficulties for shipments of all lcinds from the United States even to other neutral powers. The result was confusion in the treatment of American car goes and vessels, and controversy over the right to ship munitions of war.