The Spectator at war: Freedom of the seas

From ‘How We Are Blockading Germany’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915:

We are, indeed, fighting against a thoroughly unscrupulous enemy, and we have to consider how we can bring the war to an end in the shortest possible time. If we shorten the war, we shall save life—the lives of the non-combatants at sea who are threatened by Germany’s diabolical engines—and shall redeliver to the world the seas free and open to traffic. We shall sustain Liberty against despotic dictation, and vindicate the sanctity of national pledges. Beside such objects temporary commercial inconveniences are really small matters. We cannot help feeling strongly that we shall make a great mistake if we try to argue solely on legal grounds. The issue transcends more legalism, just as a great Judge in a Law Court prefers plain justice between man and man to the pedantic insistence on legal technicalities.