At a meeting of the Royal Statistical Society on Tuesday
evening, Lord George Hamilton read a paper on " Ocean Highways ; their Bearing on the Food and Wages of Great Britain." We have dealt elsewhere with its main line of thought—the vital necessity for keeping access to England by sea uninterrupted—but may mention here the manner in which Lord George Hamilton treated the often-expressed opinion that in case we lost command of the sea we might obtain our food- supplies in neutral bottoms and by the transfer of ships from our flag to that of some neutral Power. This Lord George Hamilton described as a vain hope. " Experience showed that a neutral flag was not in itself sufficient protection to neutral vessels trading to the ports of a belligerent unless the neutral had behind it a Navy strong enough to ensure respect for that flag." That is sound sense. We must never forget that, above all others, the rules of International Law were " made to be broken." States may agree to them and observe them in peace-time, but war is a form of anarchy, and during its existence might is virtually the only right.
Previous page
