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certain specified fortified places.1 During the TurcoItalian war the rule of Article 35 of the Declaration came into question. In January, 1912, the Carthage, a French mail-steamer plying between Marseilles and Tunis, was captured for carriage of contraband by an Italian torpedoboat because she had an aeroplane destined for Tunis on board. As the destination of the vessel was neutral, and as aeroplanes were conditional contraband under the rules of the Declaration of London, France protested against the capture of the vessel. Italy thereupon agreed to release her, and the parties arranged to have the question as to whether the capture of the vessel was justified settled by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague, which held Italy liable in damages because the seizure had been made without sufficient grounds to assert the hostile destination of the aeroplane.2

In the Balkan war Greece declared that she would consider as contraband the articles enumerated in Articles 22 and 24 of the Declaration of London, except that the articles specified under items 8 and 9 in the latter Article would be considered as absolute and not conditional contraband.3

1 Ibid. 98-9; The Times, October 11, 12, and 17, 1911.

2 Opp. I. L. ii. 506, n.; 7 A. J. (1913), 623; 40 J. I. P. (1913), 1025; Rusé in 16 R. D. I. 2nd ser. (1914), 101–36.

3 40 J. I. P. (1913), 1025; and with regard to coal, see ibid. 717, 1426.

Impossi

list of contraband goods.

CHAPTER XIV

CONTRABAND IN THE WAR OF 1914-15

It is impossible to draw up a list of contraband articles bility of conclusive that will hold good for all time and in all circumstances. Apart from the distinction between absolute and conditional contraband, articles and commodities of use in war are continually changing. Different wars are waged under different conditions, while the needs of all countries cannot be the same owing to the variations in their situation and means. Under certain circumstances it may injure a belligerent to carry to his enemy articles which, under other circumstances, would be perfectly harmless.1 It has accordingly been the invariable practice from the inception of the law of contraband for maritime nations to exercise their discretion, subject to such restrictions as may attach either by treaty or under the customary law of nations, with regard to the objects to be treated as contraband, and to include in that category all articles and commodities which, from the changing phases of the war, or from novel modes of conducting war, may be capable of rendering material support to the naval or military power of the enemy.

Recognized in international practice.

In 1866 Spain declared that a belligerent has the right to declare new articles to be contraband of war when, from the circumstances of the war, they become, on the part of the enemy, elements for undertaking and carrying on hostilities.2 The same principle was incorporated in the resolution adopted by the Institute of International Law in 1877.3 Similarly, in the correspondence with

1 Cf. Manning, 352–3; and Professor Holland's letter to The Times of August 24, 1915.

2 Moore, Dig. vii. 673.

3 Beckenkamp, 20; supra, p. 128.

Chile in 1885, the United States acknowledged that with the lapse of time the just rights of belligerents may require an addition to the articles heretofore regarded as contraband of war; 1 and Mr. Bryan, the late United States Secretary of State, supported this practice in his letter to Mr. Stone, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, defending the neutrality of the United States in the present war of 1914–15.2

settled

The extent to which a belligerent is entitled to interfere List to be with neutral trade in a particular war can only be deter- by appli mined by applying to its special conditions the general cation of general principle that neutral traders are bound to refrain from principles. carrying to the enemy of a belligerent, who has sufficient command of the sea to prevent such carriage, any object capable of assisting that enemy in his warlike operations.3 The list of contraband articles must be settled by the application of gencral principles to the particular circumstances of each war, and in this application a fair allowance must always be made for revolutionary changes in the scope of the conditions of warfare which every great war is likely to bring about. In the present war experience showed that the contraband lists of the Declaration of London were not sufficiently elastic, and various changes have been made in the lists of contraband articles in accordance with the gradual appreciation of the different commodities required for military purposes under the new war conditions.4

tion of

1914.

On August 4, 1914, the British Government issued Proclama. a Proclamation 5 containing lists of absolute and con- August 4, ditional contraband which were identical with those in Articles 22 and 24 of the Declaration of London, except that aircraft were transferred from the conditional to

1 Moore, Dig. vii. 664.

2 9 A. J. (1915), 446.

3 Cf. Pratt, xix, xxvi; Bonfils, 1007; Hansemann, 46-8; Moseley, 9; Bentwich in 9 A. J. (1915), 38.

4 Cf. Bentwich, ibid. 41. 5 M. E. L. 108; infra, App. C, p. 285.

the absolute list. In the Declaration of London Order in Council, 1914, of August 20,1 it was provided that the lists comprised in the Proclamation of August 4 should be substituted for those of the Declaration. Decrees to the same effect were also issued by France Proclama and Russia. By a Proclamation of September 21,3 Septem- unwrought copper, lead, glycerine, ferrochrome, iron ore, rubber, and hides and skins, raw or rough tanned (but not including dressed leather), were added to the list of conditional contraband.

tion of

ber 21,

1914.

Proclamation of Oc

tober 29,

1914.

tion of

On October 29 these lists were withdrawn and a Proclamation was published in which a very extensive increase was made in the list of absolute contraband. Under this head were then comprised iron, nickel, copper, lead, aluminium, motor vehicles of all kinds and their component parts, motor tyres, rubber, mineral oils and motor spirit (except lubricating oils), sulphuric acid, range finders, and barbed wire and implements for fixing and cutting the same. At the same time the Declaration of London Order in Council No. 2, 1914,5 was published, which annulled and replaced the earlier Order in Council of August 20, and expressly excluded from the adoption of the Declaration the lists of contraband and non-contraband contained in that document. Identical lists were also subsequently adopted by France and Russia in the place of those contained in the Declaration.6

Proclama- These lists were in turn withdrawn by the British Government on December 23, and fresh lists were again published. Further important alterations were made

December 23, 1914.

1 M. E. L. 143; infra, App. B, p. 282.

2 M. E. L. Sup. No. 2, 78, n. (a).

3 M. E. L. 111; infra, App. C, p. 287.

4 M. E. L. Sup. No. 2, 52; infra, App. C, p. 288.

5 M. E. L. Sup. No. 2, 78; infra, App. B. p. 284.

M. E. L. Sup. No. 2, 78, n. (a); Sup. No. 3, 302, n. (a), 330.

7 M. E. L. Sup. No. 3, 302; infra, App. C, p. 290.

in the absolute list, which then contained twenty-nine
items, and the changes made appear to be due to the
desire to bring this list into agreement with actual
practice in the use of chemical ingredients and metals
for warlike purposes.
Thus item 4, which formerly
contained sulphuric acid only, enumerated various ingre-
dients of explosives, and both sulphur and glycerine
were transferred there from the conditional list. The
list of metals and ores was also considerably increased
(items 13-15), while item 22—submarine sound signalling
apparatus—was new. The conditional list was still
almost the same as that in the Declaration, but hides
and leather, as we have seen, were inserted in it, while
barbed wire was transferred to the absolute list. The
French and Russian Governments adopted similar lists.1

tion of

1915.

On March 11, 1915,2 the following articles were added Proclamato the list of absolute contraband :-Raw wool, wool March 11. tops and noils, and woollen and worsted yarns; tin, chloride of tin, tin ore; castor oil, paraffin wax, copper iodide, lubricants; hides of cattle, buffaloes, and horses; skins of calves, pigs, sheep, goats, and deer; leather, undressed or dressed, suitable for saddlery, harness, military boots, or military clothing; ammonia and its salts, whether simple or compound; ammonia liquor; urea, aniline, and their compounds. Tanning substances of all kinds (including extracts for use in tanning) were declared as conditional contraband; and it was also declared that the terms 'foodstuffs' and 'feeding stuffs for animals' in the list of conditional contraband should be deemed to include oleaginous seeds, nuts, and kernels; animal and vegetable oils and fats (other than linseed oil) suitable for use in the manufacture of margarine; and cakes and meals made from oleaginous seeds, nuts,

1 M. E. L. Sup. No. 3, 302, n. (a); L. G. June 25, 1915.
2 M. E. L. Sup. No. 3, 305; infra, App. C, p. 293.

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