Nor does it appear to Sir E. Grey that the provision conflicts with the principle of the English common law that an enemy subject is not entitled to bring an action in the courts to sustain a contract, commerce with enemy subjects being illegal.
That principle operates automatically on the outbreak of war, it requires no declaration by the Government, still less by a commander in the field, to bring it into operation. It is a principle which applies equally whether the war is being waged on land or sea, and which is applied in all the courts and not merely in those within the field of the operations of the military commanders.
The whole question of the effect of war upon the commerce of private persons may require reconsideration in the future; the old rules may be scarcely consistent with the requirements or the conditions of modern commerce; but a modification of those rules is not one to which His Majesty's Government could be a party except after careful enquiry and consideration, and, when made at all, it must be done by a convention that applies to war both on land and sea.
They certainly have not become parties to any such modification by agreeing to a convention which relates only to the instructions they are to give the commanders of their armed forces, and which is limited to war on land.
I am, &c.,
(Signed) F. A. CAMPBELL.