ABOUT CONTRABAND

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 37, 12 August 1914, Page 4

ABOUT CONTRABAND

NATIONS AT VARIANCE. THE POSITION OF COAL. Attempts have, been made by the nations to have binding rules as to absolute and conditional contraband, but a disagreement continues. At the second Hague Conference Britain's delegates were instructed to go the length of abandoning the principle of contraband of war altogether, subject only to the exclusion by blockade of neutral trade from enemy ports. In the alternative they were to do their utmost to restrict the definition of contraband within the narrowest possible limits, and to pbtain exemption of foodstuffs destined for places other than beleagured fortresses and of raw materials required for peaceful industries. No agreement was reached except in regard to mails, which are protected by the following article :— "The postal correspondence of neutrals or belligerents, whatever its official or private cnaracter may be, is inviolable. If tiie ship is detained the correspondence is forwarded by the captain with the least possible delay." At fche London Conference of 1908-9 British Ministers were again willing to make concession*, which other nations would have .accepted with exceeding gladness, Britain's kindness, as expressed in the Declaration of London, was embodied in an Act which went through the House of Commons and was knocked down in the House of Lords. Coal has been declared conditional contraband. In a note on this material one authority remarks :— -"There i« no essential difference between the position of coal to feed ships and that of provision* to feed men. Neither is in itself contraband. At & conference in 1884 the Russian representative protested against the inclusion of coal among contraband articles, but the Russian Government included it in its declaration as to contraband on the outbreak of the Russo-Jap-anese war. In 1898 the British E'oreign Office replied to an enquiry on the position of coal that : 'Whether in any particular case coal is or is not contraband of war is a, matter prima facie for the determination of the Prize Court of th« captor's nationality, and so long as such decision, when given, does not conflict with well-established principles of international law, H.M.'a Government will not be prepared to take exception thereto.'" However, experience has proved that the so-called "well-established principles" are very vague. Sir Edward Grey announced a few months ago that another effort would be made within a year or two to obtain a, new international agreement on the questions of prizes, contraband, neutrality, and so on, but war has intervened. Germany has broken The Hague rules, and lias violated treaties in attempts to gain an advantage.