mes made to reprisals, that they are applicable only to the weaker
Powers, since a strong Power would at once treat them as acts of war, is
indeed the strongest recommendation of this mode of obtaining redress.
To localise hostile pressure as far as possible, and to give to it such
a character as shall restrict its incidence to the peccant State, is
surely in the interest of the general good. That the steps taken are
such as would probably, between States not unequally matched, cause an
outbreak of war cannot render them inequitable in cases where so
incalculable an evil is unlikely to follow upon their employment.

2. The justification of a resort either to reprisals or to war, in any
given case, depends, of course, upon the nature of the acts complained
of, and upon the validity of the excuses put forward either for the acts
themselves, or for failure to give satisfaction for them. The British
claims against Venezuela seem to fall into three classes. It will hardly
be disputed that acts of violence towards British subjects or vessels,
committed under State authority, call for redress. Losses by British
subjects in the course of civil wars would come next, and would need
more careful scrutiny (on this point the debates and votes of the
Institut de Droit International, at its meeting at Neuchatel in 1900,
may be consulted with advantage). Last of all would come the claims of
unpaid bondholders, as to which Mr. Balfour would seem to endorse, in
principle, the statement made in 1880 by Lord Salisbury who, while
observing that "it would be an extreme assertion to say that this
country ought never to interfere on the part of bondholders who have
been wronged," went on to say that "it would be hardly fair if any body
of capitalists should have it in their power to pledge the people of
this country to exertions of such an extensive character.... They would
be getting the benefit of an English guarantee without paying the price
of it."

3. Reprisals may be exercised in many ways; from such a high-handed act
as the occupation of the Principalities by Russia in 1853, to such a
mere seizure of two or three merchant vessels as occurred in the course
of our controversy with Brazil in 1861. In modern practice, these
measures imply a temporary sequestration, as opposed to confiscation or
destruction, of the property taken. In the belief that reprisals only
were being resorted to against Venezuela one was therefore glad to hear
that