Note 347 — Chapter IV · WARFARE ON SEA

It has been asserted—see, for instance, Rivier, II. p. 429—that the neutral flag covers only private, not public, enemy property, and therefore that such goods on neutral vessels as belong to the State of the enemy may be seized and appropriated. This opinion would seem, however, to be untenable in face of the fact that the Declaration of Paris speaks of marchandise neutre without any qualification, only excepting contraband goods, thus protecting the whole of the cargo under the neutral flag, contraband excepted. See below, § 319, p. 385, note 3.