French reprisal decrees

A British chronology of the war records under 12 March 1915 the issue by the French government of decrees similar to the British Reprisals Order in Council and the proclamation of 11 March. According to documents published later, on 12 March four ministers submitted a draft decree with an explanatory report to President Raymond Poincaré, and the President signed the decree itself on 13 March. It was also signed by the foreign minister Théophile Delcassé, the finance minister Alexandre Ribot, the war minister Alexandre Millerand and the minister of marine Victor Augagneur.

A reply to the German war zone

The report recalled that Germany had declared the waters around northern France and Britain a war zone in which Allied ships were to be destroyed regardless of the lives of crews and passengers. This, it said, gave the Allies the right in retaliation to prevent any goods from reaching or leaving Germany. At the same time it gave assurances that the Allies would not follow the enemy in his “cruel and barbarous methods”, and that their measures would not endanger neutral ships or human lives. The decree put into effect the joint declaration of 1 March.

What the decree provided

French warships were to stop all goods belonging to German subjects and sent to or from Germany. Territory occupied by German troops was treated as German territory. Goods of German origin meant everything that bore a German mark or had been produced there or had left German territory, including goods in transit. Goods destined for Germany meant all cargoes bound for Germany or for a country adjoining it, unless the papers proved that their real destination was a neutral state.

Neutral ships carrying such goods were to be taken into French or Allied ports and released after their cargo had been unloaded. Goods belonging to Germans were to be seized or sold, and the proceeds held until the conclusion of peace. Neutral owners could send their goods back to the port of departure or, in the case of goods bound for Germany, to another permitted port. After a set time limit the goods were liable to requisition or sale at the owner’s expense. Cases were to be decided by the prize court, which had to give judgment within eight days of receiving the papers. The same court was then hearing the case of the steamer Dacia, seized by the French at the end of February.

Similar, but not the same

The decree pursued the same aim as the British order, but its provisions were not identical. The Dutch pointed this out: the British traditionally left more latitude to the judges, while the French tried to set everything down in the text itself. The French decree also lacked the British article which promised to relax the rules for states that undertook that no German goods would be carried under their flag.

At the same time France extended its contraband lists. The United States ambassador in Paris, William Sharp, reported on 12 March the same changes as those introduced by the British proclamation of 11 March, among them the placing of wool, tin, hides and lubricants on the list of absolute contraband. Since January the French lists had matched the British ones, and this principle still applied.

On 14 March the French government assured the Americans that it did not intend to stop enemy goods outside European waters, including the Mediterranean. On 16 March the French and British ministers handed the text of the decree and of the British order to the government of the Netherlands, which a few days later protested against both acts.