Article IV enables neutral patrols and merchant convoys

Article IV allows the American republics to patrol waters adjacent to their coasts, either individually or collectively, when they judge it necessary and as their means and resources permit. That authority can support neutral states convoying their own merchant ships, with other merchant traffic potentially joining them. A German submarine might reach the coast of the United States, but reaching the southern part of the zone would be an impractical one-way mission at this stage of the war. The patrol and convoy provisions are therefore aimed chiefly at German surface raiders rather than U-boats. They add an operational barrier to commerce warfare without requiring the American republics to enter the war.