This blockade
was put into effect Feb. 18.
As already stated, merchant vessels had, as a matter of fact, been sunk
by a German submarine at the end of January. Before Feb. 4 no vessel
carrying food supplies for Germany had been held up by his Majesty's
Government except on the ground that there was reason to believe the
foodstuffs were intended for use of the armed forces of the enemy or the
enemy Government.
His Majesty's Government had, however informed the State Department on
Jan. 29 that they felt bound to place in a prize court the foodstuffs of
the steamer Wilhelmina, which was going to a German port, in view of the
Government control of foodstuffs in Germany, as being destined for the
enemy Government and, therefore, liable to capture.
The decision of his Majesty's Government to carry out the measures laid
down by the Order in Council was due to the action of the German
Government in insisting on their submarine blockade.
This, added to other infractions of international law by Germany, led to
British reprisals, which differ from the German action in that his
Majesty's Government scrupulously respect the lives of noncombatants
traveling in merchant vessels, and do not even enforce the recognized
penalty of confiscation for a breach of the blockade, whereas the German
policy is to sink enemy or neutral vessels at sight, with total
disregard for the lives of noncombatants and the property of neutrals.
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