Art. 20. A vessel which in violation of blockade has left a blockaded port or has at tempted to enter the port is liable to capture so long as she is pursued by a ship of the block ading force. If the pursuit is abandoned, or if the blockade is raised, her capture can no longer be effected.
Art. 21. A vessel found guilty of violation of blockade is liable to condemnation. The cargo is also liable to condemnation, unless it is proved that at the time the goods were shipped the shipper neither knew nor could have known of the intention to violate the blockade.' At the outbreak of the European War in 1914 the above articles were practically con tained in the regulations of the belligerents, and certain blockades were proclaimed and maintained in accord with these articles. One of the earliest of these proclamations was is sued by Great Britain on 23 Feb. 1915, declar ing the coast of German East Africa between certain points under blockade from midnight 28 February-1 March and allowing four days of grace for departure of neutral vessels from the blockaded area. Similar proclamations were issued for the Cameroons on 24 April 1915, and for the coast of Asia Minor on 1 June 1915.
The British and French proposed, in a note of 1 March 1915, in retaliation for the war zone proclamation of Germany, to take meas ures *to prevent commodities of any kind from reaching or leaving Germany.* Under these measures, it was said, *The British and French governments will therefore hold themselves free to detain and take into port ships carry ing goods of presumed enemy destination, own ership or origin. It is not intended to con fiscate such vessels or cargoes unless they would otherwise be liable to confiscation.* Of this proposition the United States government, in a note of 5 March 1915, said: *The first sentence claims a right pertaining only to a state of blockade. The last sentence proposes a treatment of ships and cargoes as if no block ade existed. The two together present a pro posed course of action previously unknown to international law.' Other correspondence fol
lowed upon this so-called blockade measure. The United States, in a long note of 21 Oct. 1915, asserted that *It is incumbent upon the United States government therefore, to give the British government notice that the blockade which they claim to have instituted under the Order in Council of 11 March cannot be rec ognized as a legal blockade by the United States.' The reasons given were that the British measures did not constitute °a blockade in law, in practice or in effect)) Referring to the American contention that the British block ade of Germany was not effective because Ger man ports were open to Scandinavian trade, the British note of 24 April 1916 advances the proposition that *even if these measures were judged with strict reference to the rules appli cable to blockades, a standard by which, in their view, the measures of the Allies ought not to be judged, it must be remembered that the passage of commerce to a blockaded area across a land frontier or across an inland sea has never been held to interfere with the effectiveness of the blockade.' In the preceding paragraph, the same note says, *that the rules applicable to a blockade of enemy ports are strictly followed by the Allies in cases where they apply, as, for instance, in the blockades which have been de clared of the Turkish coast of Asia Minor, or the coast-line of German East Africa.' In the practice in regard to continental Germany there is therefore admittedly a claim to extension of rights which at the outbreak of the war were not regarded as belonging to belligerents en gaging in blockading operations. Of this Prof. Sir Erle Richards has said "It is certain that the rights with regard to blockade must be extended if the right is to continue.' The United States has, however, in objecting to innovations in practice during war said, *It is of the highest importance to neutrals, not only of the present day but of the future, that the principles of international right be maintained unimpaired.* See ARMED NEUTRALITY; DECLA