Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1915-11-23
IS PARALLEL.

When the British government replies
to the recent American note denounc-
ing the allies blockade Of Germany as
illegal, Ineffective. indefensibie." the
plea in justification will be that the
old methods of blockade are made i'm
possible By the introduction Of the sub
marine in modern naval warfare.
The legal blockade Is to send war
ships to the entrance of all enemy
harbors and there prevent all ships
from coming out OF going in. England
says this ia impossible. that enemy
submarines would come out of the
harbor and pick off cruisers and bat
tleships one by one until the blockad-
ing nation would have no navy left.
Thereupon, the nation that had been
blockaded would send its hidden, I'M
scsthed feet out into the ocean and
reduce an island country like Eng,
land to submission by starvation in
month.
This is all very true.
So England closes the North Sea at
both ends far away from Germany's
ports and stops all ships at dis
lance,
Which In Illegal according to old
laws of the sea and of nations aud the
United States builds its case on laws
as they were before this war broke
out.
The situation is~not new one. Just
lis years ago President Jefferson had
almost exactly the same trouble with
/ Spain, In 1900. Spain declared d
blockade of Gibraltar There was an
English fleet at Gibraltar but the Span
ish navy, not daring to tackle it, took
position some distance down the
African coast, at Algeciras, and stopped
all neutral ships. Madison was our
secretary of state and he wrote our
protest to pinkney, United States min
lister 10 Spain, as follows:
The situation of the naval force at
Algecfrae, in relation to Gibraltar. has
not the shadow of likeness to a block
ade as truly and legally defined. This
force can neither be said to invest, be-
siege or blockade the garrison, nor to
guard the entrance 10 the port. On
\ the contrary, the gunboats infesting
our commerce have their stations in
another harbor separated from that
of Gibraltar by a considerable bay
and so far from beleaguring their
enemy at that place. and rendering the
entrance into it dangerous TO others.
that they are. and ever since the proc
lamation Of the blockade. have been.
for the most part, kept at distance by
a superior naval force, which makes it
dangerous to themselves to approach
the spot.
IF because neutral vessel bound
to Gibraltar can be annoyed and put
in danger by waylaying cruisers, which
neither occupy the entrance into the
harbor nor dare to approach 1t, and by
reason of that danger is liable to cap
ture, every part of the Mediterranean
coasts and islands to which neutral
vessels must pass through the same
danger may with equal reason be pro-
claimed in state of blockade, and the
neutral vessels bound thereto made
equally liable 10 capture; or if the
/ armed vessels from AlgeciTas alone
should be insufficient to create this
danger in passing into the Mediterran-
can. other Spanish vessels, cooperat-
/ ing from other stations, might produce
the effect, and the sports thereby not
only blockade any particular port OF
any particular nation, but blockade at
once whole sea surrounded by many
nations,
] Like blockades might be proclaim
ed by any particular nation. enabled BY
its naval superiority to distribute its
ships at the mouth Of the same or any
similar sea or across channels or arms
Of the sea. SO as to make it dangerous
1 for the commerce of other nations ro
pass to its destination. These mon
strous consequences condemn the prin-
ciple from which they flow and ought
to unite against il every nation, Spain
among the rest which has an interest
/ in the rights Of the sea"
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