DEPARTMENT OF STATE.

438 SEVERANCE OF RELATIONS WITH AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.
most glaring contradiction to the traditional right of
blockade established by international treaties has been
pointed, out by the President of the United States of
America himself, in words which will continue to live in
the history of international law. By the illegal hindrance
of exportation from the Central Powers, Great Britain
intended to bring to a standstill the countless factories
and concerns which the industrious and highly developed
peoples had created in the heart of Europe, and to
bring their workmen to idleness and thus incite them to
insurrection and revolt. And when Austria-Hungary's
southern neighbor entered the ranks of the enemies of
the Central Powers her first act, indeed following the example
of her allies, was to declare a blockade of the entire
coast of her enemy in disregard of the provisions of law
in the creation of which Italy a short time previously
had actively participated. Austria-Hungary did not fail
at once to point out to the neutral powers that this
blockade was void of all legal effectiveness.
The Central Powers have hesitated more than two
years. Not until then, and after mature consideration
of the pros and cons, did they resort to repaying like with
like and pressing their opponents hard at sea. As the
only ones of the belligerents who had done everything to
assure the validity of the treaties which were intended
to guarantee the freedom of the sea to the neutrals they
bitterly felt the compulsion of the hour which forced them
to violate this freedom; but they took the step in order to
fulfill an imperative duty toward their peoples and with
the conviction that it was adapted to bring about the
ultimate victory of the freedom of seas. The declarations
which they promulgated on the last day of January
of this year were only apparently directed against the
rights of the neutrals; in truth they serve the reestablishment
of these rights which the enemies have incessantly
violated and which they would destroy forever should
they be victorious. Thus the submarines surrounding
the coasts of England announce to the nations who have
need of the sea—and who has not need of it ?—that the
day is no longer distant when the flags of all States will
peacefully wave over the seas in the splendor of newly
acquired freedom.
The hope may well be entertained that this announcement
will find response everywhere where neutral peoples
live, and that it will be particularly understood by the
great people of the United States of America, whose most
competent representative has in the course of this war
advocated in flaming words the freedom of the sea as the
street of all nations. If the people and Government of
the Union keep in mind that the "blockade" laid by
Great Britain is calculated not only to subjugate the
Central Powers by hunger but ultimately to bring the
seas under her supremacy and in this way to establish
her stewardship over all nations, while on the other hand
the isolation of England and her allies only serves to
make these powers amenable to a peace with honor and
to guarantee to all nations the freedom of navigation and