[821] See Perels, § 45, and Hall, §§ 242-246, who give bird's-eye views of the controversy.
[822] See, for instance, Bluntschli, § 807.
[823] The Jonge Margaretha (1799), 1 C. Rob. 189.
[824] See Hall, § 246, p. 690, note 2; Taylor, § 662; Wharton, III. § 373.
[825] See Moore, VII. § 1254, and Holland, Letters to the "Times" upon War and Neutrality (1909) pp. 108-112.
[826] According to the British practice which has hitherto prevailed—see Holland, Prize Law, § 64—the list of conditional contraband comprises:—Provisions and liquors for the consumption of army and navy; money, telegraphic materials, such as wire, porous cups, platina, sulphuric acid, and zinc; materials for the construction of a railway, as iron bars, sleepers, and the like; coal, hay, horses, rosin, tallow, timber. But it always was in the prerogative of the Crown to extend or reduce this list during a war according to the requirements of the circumstances.
By articles 24 to 28 of the Declaration of London an agreement has been reached by the Powers according to which two classes of conditional contraband must be distinguished. Article 24 enumerates fourteen groups of articles which may always, without special declaration and notice, be treated as conditional contraband; these constitute the first class. The second—see article 25—consists of articles which are not enumerated either amongst the eleven groups of absolute contraband contained in article 22 or amongst the fourteen groups of conditional contraband contained in article 24, but which are nevertheless susceptible of use in war as well as for purposes of peace; these may be treated as conditional contraband also, but only after special declaration and notification. Such declaration may be published during time of peace, and notification thereof must then be addressed to all other Powers; but if the declaration is published after the outbreak of hostilities a notification need be addressed to the neutral Powers only. Should a Power—see article 26—waive, so far as itself is concerned, the right to treat as conditional contraband an article comprised in the first class, notification thereof must be made to the other Powers. But it is of course obvious, although not specially stated in article 26, that a Power may treat as conditional contraband any article belonging either to the first or second class of absolute contraband; in such a case, however, special declaration and notification would seem to be necessary. The following are the groups of articles comprised in the first class of conditional contraband:—
(1) Foodstuffs.
(2) Forage and grain, suitable for feeding animals.
(3) Clothing, fabrics for clothing, and boots and shoes, suitable for use in war.