WAR ZONES. Among the many circum stances which distinguished the late war from all others of the past was the practice of belligerents in treating certain areas of the ocean as °war zones° and asserting belligerent rights within such waters which are incon sistent with the long-recognized principle of the freedom of the seas. At the very out break of the war, between Great Britain and Germany the German Admiralty was guilty of planting submarine mines in open waters of the North Sea in consequence of which a goodly number of merchant and fishing vessels were destroyed. The British Admiralty at first refrained from this procedure, but on 2 Oct, 1914, in consequence of the policy of the Ger man admiralty, it announced that it had as a counter measure authorized ta mine laying policy in certain areas,° and that a ((system of mine fields had been established and is being developed on a considerable scale.° Notice was, therefore, given that within certain areas of the North Sea it would be dangerous for ships to navigate. In the following month the British Adnuralty announced that in conse quence of Germany's having scattered mines indiscriminately on the trade routes from America to Liverpool, the whole of the North Sea must be considered as a ((military area° within which shipping of all kinds would be exposed to the gravest danger from tnines which it had been necessary to lay as a counter measure. Lanes of safety, however, were pro vided and directions were issued to enable neutral vessels to navigate the North Sea with out exposure to destruction. The British mine field was extended or contracted by successive notices issued by the Admiralty from time to time throughout the succeeding years of the war.
By a memorandum of 4 Feb. 1915 the Ger man government charging Great Btitain with various violations of international law and declaring that it had in vain called the atten tion of neutral governments to these violations, proclaimed that the waters around Great Bri tain, including the whole of the English Chan nel, were a twar zone° within which after 18 February all enemy merchant vessels would be destroyed. even if it were not always possible to save their crews and passengers. It was also added that in consequence of the misuse of neutral flags by British masters, neutral ves sels navigating such waters would be exposed to the danger of destruction. The principal
difference between the so-called ((danger area° proclaimed by Great Britain and the German °war zone° was that nothing was said in the British proclamation regarding the possible sinlcing of neutral vessels; on the contrary, it left certain routes open and undertook to guarantee neutral vessels against destruction from English mines by furnishing their masters with sailing directions which if followed would insure their safety. In fact, it does not appear that any neutral vessel was ever destroyed or injured by a British mine while navigating the dangerous area. Aside, therefore, from the delays and inconveniences to which neutrals were subjected in the exercise of the right to navigate the high seas, the British measure was unobjectionable. The German proclamation in olved a much more serious encroachment upon neutral rights since it not only exposed neutral vessels navigating the war zone to destruction, but it similarly exposed neutral persons in nocently traveling on belligerent merchant ves sels within the zone, since it was the avowed intention of the German government to sink such vessels, even when it was not possible to provide for the safety of their crews and passengers. It is one thing for a belligerent to plant mines in the open seas for the sole pur pose of preventing.the approach to its coasts of enemy war ships, when precautions are taken to protect neutral vessels against de struction therein; it is a very different thing for a belligerent to proclaim .a portion of the sea to be a war zone and announce that all. enemy merchant vessels encountered within such zone shall be destroyed, even when provision cannot be made for the safety of crews and passengers and without taking steps to pre vent the destruction of neutral vessels therein by providing them with sailing directions en abling them to make their way safely enough through the forbidden zone.
In January 1917, the German government went still further, and after abrogating its previous pledges to the United States in regard to the sinking of merchant vessels (see Sus