“Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1937. BILBAO BLOCKADE.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 408, 15 April 1937, Page 4

“Taranaki Central Press” THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 1937. BILBAO BLOCKADE.

The cable messages relating to the blockade of Bilbao by I the Spanish insurgents seem to be very confused. General Franco’s announcement that he intended to prevent food cargoes from entering the port of Bilbao is apparently quite in order, for he is entitled to establish a blockade, even though from a British point of view his force is purely an insurgent one. The conditions to be observed are that the blockade must be effective and that it must be impartial. A single warship may maintain an effective blockade of one port, but it would be open to argument whether one cruiser could maintain, an “effective j blockade of any considerable stretch of coast. The point of importance in the present instance arises un- j der Articles 1 and 9of the Blockade Rules adopted in 1909, | which provide that the declaration must specify the geographical ’ limits of the coastline under blockade and that the blockade must ! not extend beyond the ports and coasts belonging to or occupied ‘ by the enemy. Apparently the British intention is to pin the I rebel warship to the immediate vicinity of Bilbao and to see that | it does not intercept British ships on the high seas. The question whether a blockade is effective is a question of fact and it seems to be obvious enough that a single warship could not possibly maintain an effective blockade if it were operating at any appreciable distance from the port affected, because by no stretch of imagination could one cruiser be regarded as a “sufficient force’’ under such conditions. A mere patrol is not a blockade. I On the other hand it seems to be stretching international law unduly to suggest, as one London journal does, that insurgent ships may not “interfere” with British ships on the high seas and that British warships would be entitled to open fire if the Almirante Cervera were to stop a merchantman outside territorial waters for the purpose of ascertaining its destination.