France accepts the Declaration of London with modifications

On 3 September 1914 the French government officially informed the United States that in wartime it would observe the 1909 Declaration of London on the law of naval warfare, but with its own additions and modifications. That day the American ambassador in Paris, Myron T. Herrick, sent the text of the French position to Washington.

An answer to Washington’s question

As early as 6 August the US government had asked the belligerents whether they would agree to apply the Declaration of London, provided that all sides accepted it. The Americans, Europe’s largest neutral trading partner, wanted clear rules that would protect their ships and cargoes. Britain replied that it would observe the declaration, but with the changes set out in the Order in Council of 20 August. France, which pursued a common policy on maritime trade with London, issued a similar decree on 25 August. The note of 3 September passed on its content as the official answer to Washington.

What the changes were

France replaced the declaration’s contraband lists with its own lists, published on 11 August in the official gazette. The most important difference was the transfer of balloons and aircraft to absolute contraband, that is, goods that could always be seized when bound for the enemy. The other changes concerned above all conditional contraband, that is, goods useful to civilians and the military alike. The French navy could seize them regardless of the port to which the ship was bound, if it proved that the ultimate recipient was the enemy’s authorities or armed forces. It was enough, for example, that the cargo was consigned to an agent of the enemy government. The note also extended the rules on blockade and on seizing ships that had carried contraband on false papers.

Significance

The French reservations, like the British ones, meant in practice the adoption of the doctrine of continuous voyage. This made it possible to seize cargoes bound for neutral ports, for example in the Netherlands, if they were destined for Germany. For neutral states, and especially for the United States, this was disturbing. The declaration “with modifications” was no longer the same document whose acceptance Washington had requested. At the end of September the American government began to press London to soften the new rules, which started a dispute over neutral rights at sea that would last for years.