I9I5.] MOORE— CONTRABAND OF WAR. 21 



the neutral ought not to be subjected by the quarrels of others to additional 

 care and expense. Hence by the practice of nations he is passive in regard 

 to violations of the rules concerning contraband, blockade, and the like, and 

 leaves the police of the sea and the punishing or reprisal power in the hands 

 of those who are most interested, the limits being fixed for the punishment 

 by common usage or law. ... It is admitted that the act of carrying to the 

 enemy articles directly useful in war is a wrong, for which the injured party 

 may punish the neutral taken in the act.^ 



Says Manning: 



The right of belligerents to prevent neutrals from carrying to an enemy 

 articles that may serve him in the direct prosecution of his hostile purposes 

 has been acknowledged by all authorities, and is obvious to plain reason. 

 . . . The nonrecognition of this right . . . would place" it in the power of 

 neutrals to interfere directly in the issue of wars — those who, by definition, 

 are not parties in the contest thus receiving a power to injure a belligerent, 

 which even if direct enemies they would not possess.* 



Says Creasy : 



A belligerent has by international law a right to seize at sea, and to appro- 

 priate or destroy, articles, to whomsoever they may belong, which are calcu- 

 lated to aid the belligerent's enemy in the war, and which are being conveyed 

 by sea to that enemy's territory.^ 



Says Holland : 



The neutral power is under no obligation to prevent its subjects from 

 engaging in the running of blockades, in shipping or carrying contraband, or 

 in carrying troops or dispatches from one of the belligerents ; but, on the 

 other hand, neutral subjects so engaged can expect no protection from their 

 own government against such customary penalties as may be imposed upon 

 their conduct by the belligerent who is aggrieved by it." 



The fact that the supplying of contraband of war is considered 

 as a participation in the hostilities is shown not only by the authority 

 of writers, but also by numerous state papers. 



Washington, in his famous neutrality proclamation of April 22, 

 1793, countersigned by Jefferson, as Secretary of State, announced 



that whosoever of the citizens of the United States shall render himself 

 liable to punishment or forfeiture under the law of nations, by committing, 

 aiding, or abetting hostilities against any of the said powers, or by carrying 



'Woolsey, "Int. Law," §§178, 179- 

 * Manning's " Law of Nations," Amos's edition, 352. 

 ° Creasy, " First Platform of Int. Law," 604. 



° Holland, "Studies in Int. Law," 124-125. See, also, Moore, Digest of 

 Int. Laiv, VII., 9/2-973- 



