1912] MOORE— CONTRABAND OF WAR. 35 



the British high commissioner, for the release or purchase by the 

 British government of any American-owned goods, which, if pur- 

 chased, were to be paid for at the price they would have brought at 

 the port of destination at the time they would have arrived there 

 in case the voyage had not been interrupted. In the course of the 

 correspondence. Lord Salisbury thus defined the position of the 

 British government on the question of contraband : 



Food stuffs, with a hostile destination, can be considered contraband of 

 war only if they are supplies for the enemy's forces. It is not sufficient that 

 they are capable of being so used; it must be shown that this was in fact 

 their destination at the time of the seizure. 



This statement by Lord Salisbury was in harmony with what is 

 laid down in Holland's Manual of Naval Prize Law, issued by the 

 British Admiralty in 1888. In this Manual conditional contraband 

 embraces provisions and liquors fit for consumption of army or 

 navy; money; telegraphic materials, such as wire, porous cups, 

 platina, sulphuric acid, and zinc ; materials for railway construction, 

 as iron bars and sleepers; coals, hay, horses, rosin, tallow, and tim- 

 ber. But these articles, it is stated, " are contraband only in case 

 it may be presumed that they are intended to be used for the pur- 

 poses of war," and " this presumption arises when such hostile 

 destination of the vessel is either the enemy's fleet at sea, or a hos- 

 tile port used exclusively or mainly for naval or military equipment." 



On the outbreak of the war with Japan, the Russian government, 

 in March, 1904, published instructions to its naval commanders 

 which forbade the conveyance of contraband " to Japan or to Japa- 

 nese armed forces," and denounced as contraband " foodstuffs," 

 including all kinds of grain, fish, fish products of various kinds, 

 beans, bean oil, and oil cakes. The British government protesting 

 expressed " great concern " that " rice and provisions " should be 

 treated as unconditionally contraband, this being regarded " as in- 

 consistent with the law and practice of nations." The British gov- 

 ernment, it was declared, did not contest " that, in particular cir- 

 cumstances, provisions may acquire a contraband character, as for 

 instance, if they should be consigned direct to the army or fleet of 

 a belligerent, or to a port where such fleet may be lying " ; but it 



