I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND
Oxford, May 9 (1898).
The four letters which next follow also relate to the two classes of contraband goods, with especial reference to the character attributed to foodstuffs, coal and cotton.
On foodstuffs, see the Report of the Royal Commission on the Supply of Food, &c., in Time of War, 1905. Cf. also infra., pp. [174], [176], [177]. They were placed by the unratified Declaration of London, Art. 24, in the class of conditional contraband; as is also coal. By Art. 28 of the Declaration, raw cotton was enumerated among the articles which cannot be declared contraband of war.
The suggestion in the letter of February 20, 1904, that certain words quoted from the Japanese instructions had been mistransmitted [149]or misquoted was borne out by the Regulations governing captures at sea, issued on March 15, 1904, Art. 14 of which announces that certain goods are contraband "in case they are destined to the enemy's army or navy, or in case they are destined to the enemy's territory, and from the landing place it can be inferred that they are intended for military purposes."
The letters of March 10 and 15, 1905, will sufficiently explain themselves. The accuracy of the statements contained in them was vouched for by Baron Suyematsu, in a letter which appeared in The Times for March 16, to the effect that: "In Japan the matters relating to the organisation and procedure of the prize court, and the matters relating to prize, contraband goods, &c., are regulated by two separate sets of laws.... The so-called prize Court law of August 20, 1894, and amendment dated March 1, 1904, which your correspondent refers to, are the provisions relating to the former matters. The rules regulating the latter matters—viz. prize, contraband goods, &c., are not comprised in them. The rules which relate to the latter matters, as existing at present, are consolidated and comprised in an enactment which was issued on March 7, 1904.... Under the circumstances I can only repeat what Professor Holland says ... in other words, I fully concur with the views taken by the Professor."
The distinction between articles which are "absolutely contraband," those which are "conditionally contraband," and those which are incapable of being declared contraband was expressly adopted in Arts. 22, 24, and 28 of the unratified Declaration of London of 1909, as to which, see the comment at the end of this section, as also the whole of Section 10.
Sir,—This question has now been answered, in unmistakable terms, on behalf of this country by Lord Lansdowne in his reply, which you printed yesterday, to Messrs. Powley, Thomas, and Co., and on behalf of Japan by the proclamation which appears in The Times of to-day. Both of these documents set forth the old British doctrine, now fully adopted in the United States, and beginning to win its way on the Continent of Europe, that, besides articles which are absolutely contraband, other articles ancipitis usus, and amongst them coal, may become so under certain conditions. "When destined," says Lord Lansdowne, "for warlike as opposed to industrial use." "When destined," says Japan,[150] "for the enemy's army or navy, or in such cases where, being goods arriving, at enemy's territory, there is reason to believe that they are intended for use of enemy's army or navy."