Troetsch begins by showing the different methods an enemy will be likely to pursue; and one sees throughout that he has England in mind. First of all will come—as has already happened—the so-called cruiser war or attempt to destroy the country’s commerce by snapping up her merchant ships. This can eventually end the war by the starvation process; that is, by cutting off all food and other supplies. According to the Paris international agreement of 1856 there shall be no privateering, which means that individuals may not fit out ships and take prizes, but does not mean that the property of individuals, if they are subjects of one or other of the warring powers, may not be seized. Prizes of war may either be towed into the nearest port or, after the crews and passengers have been taken off, may be sent to the bottom with all their cargo. To be effective, however, this method of warfare must be methodically pursued, which means regularly employing a force of swift cruisers. The method had its warm advocates in naval circles, especially in France about thirty years ago. There is a strong feeling at present that the game is not worth the candle and that there are other tasks for the cruisers to perform which are of more importance. For a country which has few foreign coaling stations into which the prizes can be towed but very little is to be gained; while a naval battle is greatly to be preferred to having an enemy try these tactics. Another method that may be applied against Germany is the blockading of her North Sea coast. A blockade, according to the Paris declaration of 1856 and again according to the London conference of 1908, must be effective in order to be binding; a country may not, in other words, simply declare an enemy’s coasts in a state of blockade, but must have enough ships there to enforce the regulations. A successful blockade hinders even neutral ships from landing and is the best way of preventing the entry of contraband of war and of paralyzing all commerce. The form of Germany’s coast line fairly invites to a blockade, much more than do the coasts either of England or France. A line drawn from Holland to Denmark would form the hypothenuse of a triangle including the mouths of Germany’s chief rivers, her main seaports as well as all her North Sea islands. The Baltic, too, could be easily shut off from the ocean, and with the enemy’s ships all bottled up there would be no fear of a descent on the coasts of England.