.[*]

[Footnote *: See chapter on "Exploits of the Submarines."]

On the 5th of February, 1915, the German Naval Staff announced
that beginning February 18, 1915, the waters around Great Britain
would be considered a "war zone." This was in retaliation for the
blockade maintained against Germany by the British navy. The
proclamation read as follows:

"The waters round Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole
of the English Channel, are herewith proclaimed a war region.

"On and after February 18, 1915, every enemy merchant vessel found
in this war region will be destroyed without its always being possible
to warn the crew or passengers of the dangers threatening.

"Neutral ships will also incur danger in the war region, where,
in view of the misuse of the neutral flags ordered by the British
Government and incidents inevitable in sea warfare, attacks intended
for hostile ships may affect neutral ships also.

"The sea passage to the north of the Shetland Islands and the eastern
region of the North Sea in a zone of at least thirty miles along
the Netherlands coast is not menaced by any danger.

"(Signed) Berlin, February 4, 1915, Chief of Naval Staff,
VON POHL."

The effect of this proclamation, which was in truth nothing more
than official sanction for the work that the submarines had been doing
for some weeks, and which they continued to do, was to bring Germany
into diplomatic controversy with neutral countries, particularly
the United States; such controversy is taken up in a different
chapter of this history. In connection with the naval history of
the Great War it suffices to say that such a proclamation constituted
a precedent in naval history. The submarine had heretofore been
an untried form of war craft. The rule had formerly been that a
merchantman stopped by an enemy's warship was subject to search
and seizure, and, if it offered no resistance, was taken to one
of the enemy's ports as a prize. If it offered resistance it might
be summarily sunk. But it was impossible for submarines to take
ships into port on account of the patrols of allied warships; and
the limited quarters of submarines made it impossible to take aboard
them the crews of ships which they sank.

[Illustration: THE GERMAN SUBMARINE WAR ZONE]

Reference made to the use of neutral flags quoted in the German
proclamation had been induced by the fact that certain of the British
merch