A great deal of loose talk is being indulged about the action of the Allies in establish-Ing what is called a "blockade" of Germany. The term Is a misnomer, for what has been instituted, similarly to the last war, is a system of contraband control which does not constitute formal blockade. The essence of the latter is the prevention of all ingress into or egress from the blockaded area irrespective of the nature of the goods concerned, or of whether they actually consist of contraband. For such an action to be lawful it must be rendered effective, which means that the blockading line must be established in such a manner us to render it virtually impossible or highly dangerous 1 attempt to get through it. The penalty for attempted breach of a blockade is confiscation of the ship, as well as in most eases of the cargo, which will not have been allowed to proceed Contraband control on the other hand is selective in its action and aims only at preventing certain classes of goods reaching the enemy either directly or through neutral countries. In International law a belligerent entitied to exercise this control to such extent, great or small, as his means allow and the egality of his action is not dependent upon his ability to stop and examine all vessels earrying goods destined for an enemy coun try, The penalty for carrying contraband is coruscation of the contraband cargo self, and unless the carrying vessel is shown to ha enemy character she is unaffected save in certain special circumstances.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.