WHO ARE THE HUNS?

270 Violations of Neutral States.
of war which the German Government justly regarded as a
crass instance of a breach of international law. Why should
an action which in a military sense is infinitely more dangerous
than the movement of a possibly small detachment of infantry
or cavalry over a territory, be judged otherwise than this ?
Any contrary decision would be illogical, untenable in a
military sense; and indeed highly dangerous, and in contradiction
to the letter and the significance of the 5th Conference
which says: "Belligerents are forbidden to move troops or convoys
of either munitions of war or supplies across the territory of
a neutral power." Flight across territory in an airship or aeroplane
is also a "moving across" of an apparatus of war, a mechanical
fighting unit, of a "troop" across the territory in question,
and is therefore strictly interdicted. The Swiss authorities
would also have been justified, without being accused of any
hostile attitude, (see Article X) in shooting down the airman.
There is no doubt that it is in accordance with universal
modern conceptions of law that the tracts of air immediately
above the territorial earth and water area as defined by the
boundaries of a state, are to be reckoned as a part of that
territory over which the State may exercise its rights of sovereignty.
The British interpretation would reduce the value of
neutrality to a mere minimum, and this would not be without
a powerful influence upon the security of neutral states.
B. Other Cases of the Ignoring of Neutrality on the Part
of the Triple Entente States.
In general one might say that the abuses of neutrality of
nearly all neutral states were simply legion. We would merely
call attention to the fact that at the beginning of the war the
French and English fleet made use of Corfu and Zante in a
most unabashed manner as a base of food supplies. Greece,
whose sympathies for the Triple Entente were certainly at
that time by no means negligible, was forced to beg that some
restraint be placed upon these actions,—the transport of arms
en masse over Salonilri, etc. During the bombardment of the
Dardanelles the Triple Entente States again made use of two
Greek islands, Lemnos and Tenedos, as a formal basis of longcontinued
operations.