of principles which
would render the carrying of contraband by neutrals unhampered by the
belligerents, for Count Von Buelow in setting forth the tentative system
which in the opinion of his Government would protect neutral commerce in
time of war laid stress upon the fact that there are as yet no legal
principles fixed and binding on all the maritime Powers, respecting the
rights of neutrals to trade with a belligerent, or the rights of
belligerents in respect to neutral commerce. He pointed out that,
although proposals had been repeatedly made to regulate this subject all
attempts had failed owing to the obstacles created by the conflicting
views of the different Powers.

The Peace Conference at the Hague has in fact expressed the wish that an
international conference might regulate, on the one hand, the rights and
duties of neutrals, and on the other, the question of private property
at sea. The German Chancellor intimated that his Government would
support any plan of the kind for more clearly defining the disputed
points of maritime law. The fact was pointed out that maritime law is
still in a "liquid, elastic, and imperfect state," that with many gaps
which are only too frequently apt to be supplemented by armed force at
critical junctures, this body of law opens the way for the criticism
that "the standard of might has not as yet been superseded by the
standard of right."

The Institute of International Law which met at Venice in 1896 declared
that the destination of contraband goods to an enemy may be shown even
when the vessel which carries them is bound to a neutral port. But it
was considered necessary to add the caution that "evident and
incontestable proof" must make clear the fact that the goods, contraband
in character, were to be taken on from the neutral port to the enemy, as
the final stage of the same commercial transaction.

This latter condition the English Government failed to fulfil in the
cases of the _Bundesrath, Herzog_ and _General_, and it was this failure
which gave just ground for Germany's protests. Great Britain not only
failed to show by "evident and incontestable proof" that the German
ships carried actual contraband, but she failed to show that there were
on board what have been called "analogues" of contraband. The point was
emphasized indeed that while special consideration would be shown to all
German mail steamers, not every steamer which "carried a bag of letters"
could claim th