INTERNATIONAL LAW 



3021 



INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 



belligerent or neutral, in order to find out 

 whether they carry goods that are contraband 

 of war. Belligerents have the right to blockade 

 the ports of their enemies and to stop all 

 trade through these ports (see BLOCKADE). The 

 vessel which attempts to enter or leave a 

 blockaded port is subject to capture and con- 

 fiscation after it has been brought before a 

 prize court. 



Neutral States during War. During war 

 neutral states must abstain from doing any- 

 thing which may be considered an unfriendly 

 act by any of the belligerents. Neutral states 

 must not permit the use of their territory by 

 belligerents or aid belligerents in their warlike 

 operations. But a neutral state is not called 

 upon to prevent the export or transport of 

 arms, munitions of war, or in general, of any- 

 thing which can be of use to an army or a 

 fleet. Neutral states must not permit belliger- 

 ents' war vessels to remain in one of their ports 

 more than twenty-four hours, except on ac- 

 count of damage or stress of weather. If the 

 war vessel refuses to leave, it may be seized, 

 held until the war is over, and its officers and 

 crew detained. A belligerent vessel of war 

 may only take, in a neutral port, sufficient 

 supplies of fuel and provisions to enable it to 

 reach a port of its own country. A prize may 

 be brought into a neutral port, on account of 

 unseaworthiness, stress of weather or want of 

 fuel or provisions, but must leave as soon as 

 circumstances justifying its entry are at an 

 end. If it refuses to leave, the neutral power 

 must seize it, release its officers and crew, and 

 interne the prize crew. 



Since all nations have an equal right to the 

 freedom of the seas, no belligerent can inter- 

 fere with, interrupt or render dangerous the 

 operations of neutral trade on the high seas 

 when carried on in accordance with interna- 

 tional law. At the same time neutrals cannot 

 restrict the lawful operations of belligerents. 

 But during the War of the Nations fierce con- 

 troversies raged between neutrals and some of 

 the belligerents on account of many acts com- 

 mitted by the latter. The sowing of mines on 

 the high seas along routes taken by commer- 

 cial vessels, the use of submarines for attacks 

 without warning on merchant vessels carrying 

 cargo and passengers, were among the chief 

 subjects of complaint between neutrals and 

 belligerents, and caused severance of diplo- 

 matic relations and finally war between Ger- 

 many and the United States. See NEU- 

 TRALITY ; WAR. , R.E.B. 



INTERNATIONAL PEACE CONFERENCE. 



See PEACE CONFERENCE, INTERNATIONAL. 



INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS. In 1914 

 the cannon's roar announced the beginning of 

 a worse struggle among nations than the world 

 had ever dreamed to be possible. The peoples 

 of all lands, in intervals between lurid events, 

 had opportunities in plenty to contrast two 

 world ideas which for decades have dominated 

 the two principal continents. These may be 

 termed nationalism and internationalism. In 

 the countries committed to nationalism self- 

 interests are magnified, ambition and dreams 

 of power and conquest are the ruling passions, 

 and these feed upon suspicion and distrust of 

 one people against another. Nations believing 

 strongly in internationalism believe in exalting 

 the excellent arts of peace, all the while un- 

 afraid of neighboring states and with no poten- 

 tial arms reared menacingly against them; on 

 the contrary, there is a .'ealization that each 

 has interests that are related to the successes 

 or to the failures of the others. 



Fortresses which before 1914 were believed 

 capable of withstanding the most violent as- 

 saults mark many of the boundaries in Conti- 

 nental Europe at intervals of twenty or thirty 

 miles. Their frowning guns are a dread chal- 

 lenge to the peace and security of neighboring 

 peoples; the tread of hundreds of thousands 

 of men, always under arms, is a constant 

 warning that a weak nation is at the mercy 

 of the strong ; the twentieth century has proved 

 the former safe from attack only so long as 

 the passions of the latter are not inflamed. 



Travelers in Europe from the English-speak- 

 ing, self-governing, even-tempered countries of 

 North America marvel at the extent of fortifi- 

 cation, the widespread authority of the military 

 arm and the tame acceptance by the people 

 of those conditions which entail enormous ex- 

 pense and which suppress the liberal tendencies 

 of the age. 



European countries are small, with one giant 

 exception. The Canadian provinces of Al- 

 berta and Saskatchewan, a relatively small 

 part of the great Dominion, are together larger 

 than France and Germany and all of the main- 

 land of Italy. Texas is almost as large as 

 Norway and Sweden; Spain is smaller than 

 the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illi- 

 nois. International boundaries in Europe, as 

 might be expected, are frequently but short 

 distances apart. These man-made dividing 

 lines mark more than variations in political 

 practices, for they separate peoples differing 



