The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1916-01-16
EVEN AGAINST
ALL THE PORTS
: OF HER ALLIES
UNITED STATES is TO BE
BLocKADED, SAYS STATE
MENT, ALONG WITH ALL OF
THE OTHER NATIONS.
FULL STATEMENT is GIVEN
international Law Must Govern
Assertion of Her Sea Power.
Actual Blockade to Be An
nounced in Few Days.
FULL STATEMENT is GIVEN

LONDON, Jan. 15.-Gi 0at Britain
will soon announce the es Establishment
of an actual blockade of &C many and
condition which had been e. rablished
by the orders in council. americans
who have been in close cont ct with
the machinery of the British orders
in council stated today.
A person who has acted as rep
resentative of American intert in
connection with British prize Jurt
proceedings reviewed today foi the
evolution Of the orders in council he
said:
"The British government shows an
unmistakable tendency now to shift
around the to persistently-eXpr
American contention that the interna-
tional law which prevailed before the
war must ultimately govern Great
Britain's assertion of her SEQ power.
1t is well known that when the war
began the admiralty urged upon the
foreign office the necessity for the
declaration of an actual blockade, but
bilities of neutrals could be better
protected by orders in council and,
after the adoption of these, the gov
ernment began it's interminable agree
ment with neutrals.
These agreements might have sue
ceeded if it had not been for the op-
position of the United States, which
took the stand from the first that the
orders in council were illegal and that
therefore even yelled or sub rosa rec
ognition of them in forms similar to
the Danish agreement and the Meth
erlands Overseas trust would be a
surrender of American sovereignty
under international law.
Even though not endorsing the at
titude of the biggest of the neutrals
the smaller neutral states began to
chafe under the agreements which are
criticised as being partial. Further
more. these agreements have always
been direct negation of Sir Samuel
Evans famous dictum that it is in
conceivable that the British govern
ment would issue any orders in coun-
ell which a prize court could consider
as nugatory in recognized information
al law.
THE compromise out of court by
the British government with the Chi
cago packers is the best concrete evil
dence of the modification of the or
ders in council to meet the concep-
tions of international law existing be-
fore the war. There is other evidence
of such modification and a striking
tribute to the old international law is
seen in the growing recognition of
the fact that, despite it's flimsy struc-
ture it is the only possible code for
the settlement of the problems raised
by the relations of belligerents with
neutrals.
Great Britain's attempts to substi-
tute a code of her own that would
not form dangerous precedents when
she herself may be a neutral are
doomed to fail and l should not be
surprised if the foreign office adopts
the course recommended by the ad-
miralty and declares an actual block
ade.
1T is significant in this connection
that the recent parliamentary white
paper which defeated the British
blockade used the word blockade, and
did not emphasize the fact that the
orders in council had been adopted as
a reprisal measure as did Mr. Asquith
when they were first adopted.
How strictly an actual blockade
has been enforced is subject of spec
uIation. There is no doubt in my
mind that the recent heavy shipments
to Denmark, under the Danish agree
ment, had a tremendous effect in low
ering the price of the German mark,
and there are many strong adherents,