CONTRABAND POLICY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 255, 28 October 1939, Page 7

CONTRABAND POLICY

STATEMENT ON BRITISH ! j PROCEDURE i I REPLY TO THE SOVIET ! L — I | British Official Wireless I RUGBY, Oct. 26. The Soviet. Note regarding the ' British contraband list was received : in London officially only to-day and ! it is now being considered. i In informed quarters it is underj stood it has been received at this stage with considerable surprise ana it may be said there is no likelihood of the arguments it contained being : addited. British contraband policy i and practice is fully in accordance i with international law. Belligerents ; are entirely free to specify articles ' useful in the prosecution of the war which they will regard as contraband • and classes of goods treated as contraband in the British proclamation of i September 3 correspond closely with i those proclaimed to be contraband by ; both sides in the last war, including ! the United States. j For instance fuel, one of Hie | classes of goods to the inclusion or ! which exception is taken in the Soviet ; Note, is an essential material In the i conduct of a modern war, while coli ton, which is iZso mentioned, is wide- ) ly used in the manufacture of exI plosives. Foodstuffs were also treated i as contraband as long ago as tne i eighteenth century. In view of the fact that an appeal . is made in the Soviet note to the 1909 ! declaration ot London, it is recalled ; that although that declaration was j never fully ratified by any Power an | attempt was made by Britain in the i early stages of the last war. This I attempt broke down and in as much as it excluded from the list of contraband such articles as metallic ores and cotton, its failure was not surprising. The practice followed by Britain in controlling trade in contraband or diverting ships to specified ports was adopted because of the proved impossibility of searching and examm I ing cargoes of large ships carrying I varied assortment of general merchandise at sea, which was the older practice.