THE THREE-MILE LIMIT
During the Napoleonic wars, Great Britain was in constant trouble with the United States owing to the fashion in which British naval commanders exercised, and sometimes abused, the right of searching American ships for contraband of war. The British-American quarrels had the good effect that attempts were made to standardize and establish on a firm basis the laws of neutrality at sea. The naval portion of the Neutrality Conference of 1907 contains twenty-eight clauses, of which the first provides that belligerents must respect neutral waters. Where the coast borders the open sea the neutral zone extends to three miles from the shore. As this is well within the range of even small naval guns it is clear that an opportunity is afforded to an unscrupulous captain of sinking vessels which have crossed the neutral line. In the case of a power controlling the entrance to inland seas the provision becomes of enormous importance.