Another and very serious difficulty was the conduct of the German and Austrian diplomatic and consular officials and secret agents, who entered on a propaganda intended to rouse the German-Americans, both aliens and citizens, and ' to put a pressure on the govertunent in Wash ington to take ground with regard to neutrality which would be favorable to Germany.
A further complication was bringing forward the ((law of necessity.'° Both groups of bellig erents argued that their victory was so neces sary for the welfare of mankind that they were justified in cutting down the privileges of neu trals; and that it was no time to stand on the niceties of international law, when the keep ing up of the German arrny or the British navy was at stake.
Above all, the contest in Europe speedily became so terrible that it was impossible for the people of the United States to ignore the plain fact that the interests of their country were involved and that the success of either side would mean a great change in interna tional relations. The war soon ceased to be European. It aroused every thinking man and woman. It revived influences of race and birth. Nobody was really neutral, nobody felt in different as to the outcome of the struggle, and, therefore, no voter and no statesman could be vitally neutral.
Freedom of the Seas.— During the Civil' War, from 1861 to 1865, the United States, as a belligerent, sct precedents of restricting the movement of neutral commerce. In 1914 the American foreign trade amounted to nearly $2,500,000,000 in exports and nearly $2,000,000, 000 in imports. Hence the natural tendency of the administration was to insist on the ((free dom of the seas?' This phrase in times of peace means simply that by the common con sent of all nations, the open sea, outside a line of territorial jurisdiction, usually stated as three marine miles beyond the low-water mark, was free to everybody for fisheries and for passage.
So far did this principle go that certain nar rows, as for exarnple the straits leading from the North Sea into the Baltic, though less than six miles wide, were part of the universal seas. Associated with this idea was the right of ap proach to the coast of every cotmtry for pur poses of trade, and the right of vessels to be re ceived in foreign harbors. Attempts of nations like China and Japan to forbid the approach of foreign vessels were repelled by threats and even by war.
In time of war the freedom of the seas was much more significant, for it included the right of a neutral to use the high seas as a free waterway to the ports of other neutrals or bel ligerents, and also to navigate in areas where belligerent vessels were moving about.
As soon as the war began, a series of limi tations was placed by both belligerents on this free use of the world's waterway. In the first place, all the vulnerable coasts of the bdliger ents were protected by mitzwfteld.s extending far beyond the three-mile limit, thus reserving long belts of water from commerce. Gaps and lanes were left in these belts, however, through, which vessels could pass in and out under pilot age. The next disturbance was due to the pres ence of vessels of war in the North Sea and Mediterranean. Where fighting was going on, it was plain that merchant vessels must mov. at their own risk. Great Britain (13 Oct. an ,,.
21 . 4 Nov. 1914) announced that (towing to the dis-r covery of mines in the North Sea, the whole oj, that sea must be considered a military area.1 Merchant shipping of all kinds will be exposed to the gravest dangers?) All ships were warned not to pass a line drawn from the Hebrides to Iceland. There was no threat of capture for vessels that ignored the notice; they were sim- , ply warned that Great Britain would take no ! responsibility if they were destroyed accident ally.
The Germans made this an excuse for a 1 1 proclamation (4 Feb, 1915) to the .effect that the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ire ! land including the whole English Channel are hereby declared to be a war zone?' Enemy merchant vessels in the war zone could be destroyed without rescuing passengers and crews. An accompanying °memorial" held that Great Britain had in various ways violated the international law of naval warfare, the neutral powers had not insisted on their own rights, and the German government would not be re sponsible if one of them should become °the victim of an attack intended to be directed against the vessels of the enemy.1) One highly important stretch of water, the Straits of Dover and the English Channel, was throughout the war treated by the British gov lernment as in their sole military possession. ,Commerce was first restricted, and then com Delled to find its way around the north of 5cotland, which was a serious detriment to the trade of and with Holland.