A great point is also made by the United States Government that the Order in Council is invalid because, if it is to be considered as a blockade, it discriminates against the United States and is not enforced against those countries which, owing to their contiguity to Germany, are inside the cruiser cordon. The principle on which this complaint is based is thus given in Article 5 of the Declaration of London:--‘A blockade must be applied impartially to the ships of all nations.’ This principle is an integral part of the old system of blockade, under which access to neutral ports or coasts may not be barred by the blockading forces (Article 18 of the Declaration). But it is manifest that directly the principle of the ‘long-distance blockade’ is admitted the access to neutral ports must be interfered with; and the Protest expressly recognises the necessity of admitting this principle. Moreover, it would seem that Article 5 of the Declaration applies to an intentional discrimination between the ships of different countries by the blockading belligerent. It is clear that the United States Government does not interpret the article to be, from reasons of geography, an impediment to the new form of blockade which it has expressly approved. _The Relation between Contraband of War and Blockade_ Let me now try to make things a little clearer. We are so accustomed to the grooves in which our thoughts have been trained to run that we are apt to overlook the intimate connexion which exists between the law of contraband of war and the law of blockade. They are treated as isolated doctrines, as independent branches of the law. The American Protest declares them to be separate ‘concessions’ by neutrals to belligerents. Discussed, as they are, in terms which have no common denomination of language, comparison between them has become, if not impossible, certainly unusual.[39] Let us then reduce them to a common denominator. If we talk of both in terms of belligerent action we find in the law of contraband the right of search as a preliminary to seizure, in the law of blockade the right of seizure without search. In terms of the cargo seized, we find the first limited to contraband of war, the second unlimited. But this is not very satisfactory; it does not explain why, if the neutral merchant has any _rights_ in regard to non-contraband, the belligerent may destroy them by declaring a blockade. It appears to lead to some such general principle as this: when neutral vessels come within a certain distance from the enemy’s coasts (the offing) a belligerent may seize anything and everything, but until they come within that distance he can only seize contraband of war: which is not an accurate statement of the law. ‘Belligerent right’ is clearly the common factor; a belligerent has the right to declare what shall be contraband of war; he has the right to declare a blockade. The variant is the position and number of ships he makes use of, the exhibition of