Excerpt from The Law of Blockade The right of a nation at war to close the ports of its enemy so as to prevent him securing food or military supplies is as old as war itself. This is known as a blockade. It was practiced by the Greeks and the Romans. It is the complement on sea of operations on land. Cities and forts have always been blockaded by armies, the purpose being to prevent their inhabitants or garrisons from receiving assistance and to force their surrender through exhaustion. A sea blockade aims to accomplish the same purpose on a grander scale. It is directed not against a single fortress or city, but a whole people. There is a difference in degree, but no difference in effect. In a beleaguered fortress a few thousand, sometimes many thousand, persons suffer hunger, they die because they are deprived of drugs and other medical necessities. When an entire coast is under blockade the deaths and the misery are multiplied tenfold, a hundred-fold, a thousand-fold. This is one of the brutalities of war. The land belongs to nations, each sovereign over its own, the sea belongs to all. National jurisdiction extends to one marine league, or three land miles, beyond the coast line, outside of that the heaving waters are common property: the high seas have been given over, by consent of mankind, to the free use of man, subject only to such restrictions as civilization and experience have proved to be for the general good. In war nations close their barriers. It is a military measure, and he who ignores the warning does so at his peril. For an alien to attempt to enter belligerent territory is to run grave risk; he may suffer a long term of imprisonment, very often death; his goods can be confiscated. His intentions may be innocent, he may simply endeavour to cross from his own neutral country through that of the enemy to another neutral country, but his intent docs not save him. Whenever lie sets foot in the country at war he hazards his property, his liberty or his life. To complete the isolation measures are taken to prevent intrusion from the sea. International law sanctions blockade and provides a penalty for its violation. When a port is blockaded and a neutral vessel attempts to enter, it may be seized and the vessel and cargo become "lawful prize," that is the property of the captor as the spoils of war. There is, it will be seen, no difference between the penalty on land or sea, only the law of the sea is more merciful. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.