Could von Spee preserve his squadron through internment?

Could von Spee have sailed to a neutral port, preserved his ships, and returned his crews to Germany?

Neutral authorities would have interned both ships and crews, and neither Chile nor the United States had much incentive to risk British retaliation by helping them escape.

Internment would have preserved the ships from immediate destruction, but it would also have confined their crews instead of releasing trained sailors for Germany. The United States and Italy had little reason to compromise their neutrality or invite British blockade pressure by helping the squadron evade those rules. Wilhelm Canaris escaped from Chile because he spoke Spanish and could travel alone under a South American identity, an exceptional route that thousands of sailors could not repeat. Turkey's partisan neutrality and Switzerland's armed enforcement show that neutrality worked only when a state consistently accepted its obligations and risks.