That would make sense, with the need to continue trade. I wonder how the U.S. interned the merchants in WWI, hmmm.

EDIT: Just had a look at the Hague conventions 1907 on the yale website and it's very interesting. All sorts of stuff like, if a German ship is in an English harbour at the start of warm then you can intern the ship, but you can only requisition it if you pay compensation... same goes for the cargo. That would be a bit strange, paying your enemy for the use of his ships. And stuff like, the rules on using mines and who removes them after the war.

The set of rules about neutral countriesd only mentions warships, so it looks like you are right on that one. I still wonder how the U.S. interned those merchants though!

Never heard of any interned neutral merchants during both World Wars

Anyway, one of the first US actions of WWI was to try to intern the cruiser SMS Cormoran (Then docked in Guam), but the ship chose to scuttle itself instead of surrendering