6. Use of neutral territory as "base of operations." (2) Sale of prizes. § 1302. (4) Telegraphic service. § 1304. (5) Coal supplies. § 1305. 7. Question as to rescue of seamen. § 1306. IV. ACTS NOT PROHIBITED. 1. Sale of merchant ships. § 1307. 2. Sale of contraband. (1) By private persons. § 1308. (2) By governments, inadmissible. § 1309. 3. Blockade running. § 1310. 4. Loans or contributions of money. (1) By private persons. § 1311. (2) By governments, inadmissible. 5. Expressions of opinion. § 1313. V. ASYLUM. 1. Concession presumed. § 1314. 2. Limitation of stay and supplies. § 1315. 3. Repairs. § 1312. (1) Of war damage inadmissible. § 1316. (2) Ordinary damage: limitations; internment. § 1317. (3) Internment of fugitive troops. § 1318. VI. ENFORCEMENT OF NEUTRAL DUTIES. 1. Proclamations. § 1319. 2. Legislation. § 1320. 3. Executive action. § 1321. 4. Judicial action. § 1322. 5. Arrest and detention. § 1323. 6. Exaction of bond. § 1324. 7. Restitution of captured property. § 1325. 8. Effect of a commission. § 1326. 9. Question of extraterritorial pursuit. § 1327. 10. Duty under extraterritorial jurisdiction. § 1328. VII. MEASURE OF EXERTION. 1. Requisite diligence. § 1329. 2. Rules of 1871; Geneva Award. § 1339. VIII. STATE OF BELLIGERENCY. § 1331. 1. Essential, as against titular government. IX. EFFECT OF ARMISTICE. § 1333. X. RESPECT DUE TO NEUTRAL TERRITORY. 1. Inviolability. § 1334. 2. Duty to prevent violations. XI. RIGHTS OF NEUTRAL TRADE. § 1336. $ 1335. 1. NATURE OF OBLIGATION. 1. ITS SIGNIFICANCE. § 1287. "By the usual principles of international law, the state of neutrality recognizes the cause of both parties to the contest as just— that is, it avoids all consideration of the merits of the contest." Mr. J. Q. Adams, Sec. of State, to Mr. Gallatin, May 19, 1818, MS. Inst. See Fiore, Droit Int. Public, III. 372; Rivier, Principes du Droit des The idea of a neutral nation “implies two nations at war, and a third in friendship with both." Case of the Resolution, Federal Court of Appeals (1781), 2 Dallas, 19, 21. "A neutral nation may, if so disposed, without a breach of her neutral character, grant permission to both belligerents to equip their vessels of war within her territory. But without such permission the subjects of such belligerent power have no right to equip vessels of war, or to increase or augment their force, either with arms or with men, within the territory of such neutral nation." Brig Alerta . Blas Moran (1815), 9 Cranch, 359, 365. The view that a neutral may permit unneutral acts to be committed within its territory, provided it extends the permission to both bellig erents, is now obsolete. It is obvious that, although such permission was impartially offered, it might be of immense use to one belligerent and of none to the other. "As to the sale and the delivery of war vessels to belligerents, it is to be observed that that industry does not exist in the country. If any acts of such nature were to take place on Belgian territory, article 123 of the penal code would provide the Government with the necessary power to repress them, inasmuch as they would be contrary to the rules universally recognized by the law of nations." M. de Favereau, Belgian min. of for. aff., to Mr. Storer, min. to Belgium, Sept. 6, 1898, enclosed by Mr. Storer with dispatch No. 140, Sept 14, 1898, MS. Desp. from Belgium. About the middle of March, 1898, upwards of a month before the commencement of hostilities between the United States and Spain, the United States purchased two war ships then building in England-a torpedo boat and the Brazilian cruiser Almirante Abreu. When war was announced, the British Government promptly prohibited the departure of the nearly completed torpedo boat, which had been named the Somers, and stopped work on the cruiser. This action appeared to be in conformity with the obligations of neutrality, and was acquiesced in by the United States. By the protocol between the United States and Spain, signed at Washington, August 12, 1898, hostilities were suspended, and it was stipulated that commissioners should be sent to Paris to negotiate for peace. On November 19, 1898, the American embassy in London was instructed to make, if practicable, arrangements with the British Government "permitting the bringing to the United States of the torpedo boat Somers, now stored at Falmouth, England, giving assurance that in case of the resumption of hostilities with Spain this vessel will not be made use of." A formal request to this effect was presented to the British foreign office, December 1, 1898, the embassy observing, with reference to the condition above stated, that the resumption of hostilities "would now appear to be highly improbable." A treaty of peace between the United States and Spain was signed at Paris, December 10, 1898. Two days before, on December 8, Lord Salisbury, replying to the embassy's request, said: "You add that you are instructed by the United States Government to give an assurance that in the event of hostilities being resumed with Spain, which would now appear to be highly improbable, the Somers will not be made use of. In view of this assurance I have the honor to state that Her Majesty's Gov ernment are glad to comply with your request, and that the necessary instructions will at once be sent to the proper authorities in order to facilitate the departure of the vessel." 66 Mr. Sherman, Sec. of State, to Mr. White, chargé at London, tels., March As to the purchase of the Amazonas and Almirante Abreu, see Mr. Hay to For the neutrality proclamations of various governments during the war between the United States and Spain, see Proclamations and Decrees during the War with Spain, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1899. I have held a conference to-day with Don José Rovera, the commissioner appointed by the Provisional Government of Yucatan to proceed to this city for the purpose of re-establishing friendly and commercial relations between that state and the United States. I informed him, under instructions from the President: "1. That whilst Yucatan continued to maintain her neutrality according to her own voluntary agreement, in the existing war between Mexico and the United States, the latter had respected this neutrality and placed her commerce on the same footing with that of all other neutral states. "2. That the decree of the Extraordinary Congress of Yucatan, adopted on the 25th August last, had changed this neutrality into a state of hostility against the United States; and that therefore it became the duty of the latter to make a corresponding change in their conduct, and treat her as an enemy and not as a neutral. "3. That the present revolutionary movement of the people of Yucatan for the purpose of restoring her to her former neutral position in the war between Mexico and the United States, has not yet to our knowledge proven completely successful. The City of Mexico, the capital of the state, at the date of our last authentic advices, was still in possession of the government which had sanctioned the decree of the 25th August last. The revolutionary struggle, so far as we have learned, has not yet terminated successfully for the partizans of neutrality. Under these circumstances, all that this Government can do with propriety is to instruct the officer commanding the U. S. naval forces in the Gulf of Mexico to treat Yucatan again as a neutral state whenever he shall have received authentic information that the revolution is accomplished and the government is restored to the hands of those determined to maintain a neutral position. The officer in command must first be satisfied, however, of the real, bona fide neutrality of Yucatan; and, in case he should afterwards at any time discover that under the guise of neutrality the Yucatanese are carrying on a contraband trade and furnishing Mexico with arms and munitions of war, he will be instructed without further orders from his government to recommence hostile operations. "It is the President's request that you should immediately issue instructions in conformity with the foregoing communication, which I have made verbally to Don José Rovera." Mr. Buchanan, Sec. of State, to Mr. Mason, Sec. of the Navy, Feb. 22, 1847, 36 MS. Dom. Let. 315. 2. GOVERNMENTAL CONDUCT. $1288. The obligations of a neutral state may be embraced in "three classes, involving, respectively, ABSTENTION, PREVENTION, and ACQUIESCENCE." By the first of these the neutral state is "bound not to supply armed forces to a belligerent; not to grant passage to such forces, and not to sell to him ships or munitions of war, even when the sale takes place in the ordinary course of getting rid of superfluous or obsolete equipment." Neutral Duties in a Maritime War, by Thomas Erskine Holland, Proceedings of the British Academy, II. 2. In the course of the foregoing paper, Holland, referring to the fact that a neutral nation is bound not to sell men-of-war to a belligerent, says: "A new, though cognate, question has, however, been raised by the sale of certain German liners to Russia, which forthwith, after rechristening, commissioned them as armed cruisers. If these vessels were, as is alleged, subsidized by their own Government, with a view to their employment by that Government in case of need, it has been urged with much force that they practically form part of the reserve of the Imperial German Navy, and that, therefore, Germany being neutral, they could not be lawfully sold to a belligerent. It would seem that the opinion of the law officers to which Mr. Balfour alluded in August, 1904, was not given with reference to precisely the facts above stated." (Ibid.) So long as the question of sovereignty and independence "remains at stake upon the issue of flagrant war, no third party can recognize the one contending for independence as independent, without assuming as decided the question the decision of which depends upon the issue of the war, and without thereby making itself a party to the question. No longer neutral to the question, the recognizing power can no longer claim the right of being neutral to the war. These positions are clear in principle, and they are confirmed by the experience of our own revolutionary history. The acknowledgment of our |