Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

THE POLITICAL SITUATION. 83

and M. de Freycinet. It was a Ministry which not only represented every phase of opinion, like its predecessor, but contained the highest practical talent which the nation could show. France, turning her eyes for one moment from the enemy lines, approved the change.

In October the relations between America and Germany were slightly eased by the announcement made by Mr. Lansing on the sth that Oo Germany had disavowed the sinking of et: the Arabic, and was prepared to pay an indemnity for American lives lost. Following upon this modest success, the American Government caused to be prepared a Note of protest against the Allied maritime policy which was communicated to the French and British Governments on 5th November. The text of the document will be found in an Appendix to this volume. In earlier chapters we have seen that the British Declaration of March 1, 1915, went in more than one respect beyond the current doctrines and practices of international law. Our blockade of Germany could not be « effective ” in the strict sense of the old textbooks. Enemy merchandise, even when not contraband of war, was made liable to capture in neutral bottoms, and this involved the rejection of the Declaration of Paris, to which, by the way, America was not a signatory. The definition of contraband, too, was enormously widened. Our defence was that the changes were made necessary by the new conditions of maritime warfare, that international law was not a fixed Sinaitic body of dogma, but, like all human law, must change with changing circumstances, and

Nov. 5.