iginal Blockade

American Protests Following the "War Zone" Decrees Defined

The first definite statement of the real character of the
measures adopted by Great Britain and her allies for
restricting the trade of Germany was obtained at Washington on
March 17, 1915, when Secretary Bryan made public the text of
all the recent notes exchanged between the United States
Government and Germany and the Allies regarding the freedom of
legitimate American commerce in the war zones. These notes,
six in all, show that Great Britain and France stand firm in
their announced intention to cut off all trade with Germany.
The communications revealed that the United States Government,
realizing the difficulties of maintaining an effective
blockade by a close guard of an enemy coast on account of the
newly developed activity of submarines, asked that "a radius
of activity" be defined. Great Britain and France replied with
the announcement that the operations of blockade would not be
conducted "outside of European waters, including the
Mediterranean."

The definition of a "radius of activity" for the allied fleet
in European waters, including the Mediterranean, is the first
intimation of the geographical limits of the reprisal order.
Its limits were not given more exactly, the Allies contend,
because Germany was equally indefinite in proclaiming all the
waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland a "war zone." The
measures adopted are those of a blockade against all trade to
and from Germany--not the historical kind of blockade
recognized in international law, but a new and original form.

The several notes between the United States and the
belligerent Governments follow. The stars in the German note
mean that as it came to the State Department in cipher certain
words were omitted, probably through telegraphic error. In the
official text of the note the State Department calls
attention to the stars by an asterisk and a footnote saying
"apparent omission." In the French note the same thing occurs,
and is indicated by the footnote "undecipherable group,"
meaning that the cipher symbols into which the French note was
put by our Embassy in Paris could not be translated back into
plain language by the State Department cipher experts. From
the context