Cotton as Contraband
Sir,—Your correspondent “Judex” will rejoice, as I do, that cotton has now been declared to be “absolute contraband.” May I, however, suggest that the topic should be discussed without any reference to the fortunately unratified Declaration of London, that premature attempt to codify the law of maritime warfare, claiming, misleadingly, that its rules “correspond in substance with the generally recognised principles of international law”?
It is surely regrettable that, by the Order in Council of August 20, 1914, our Government adopted the provisions of the Declaration “during the present hostilities,” and “subject to various additions and modifications,” the list of which has since been considerably extended. This half-hearted course of action painfully recalls certain vicious methods of legislation by reference, and was additionally uncalled for, since, as has been shown by recent events, about two-thirds of the rules laid down by the Declaration are inapplicable to modern warfare.
The straightforward announcement made by the United States in their Note of January 25 is surely far preferable. It states in plain terms that, “As the Declaration of London is not in force, the rules of international law only apply. As to articles to be regarded as contraband there is no general agreement between nations.” In point of fact, the hard-and-fast categories of neutral imports, suggested by the threefold Grotian division, as set forth in the Declaration, are unlikely ever to be generally accepted. Even Grotius is careful to limit his proposals, and Bynkershoek, in commenting upon them, points out that the test of contraband of the most noxious kind must be the, possibly exceptional, importance of objects for hostile use; their being of use also for non-hostile purposes being immaterial (“nec interesse an et extra bellum usum praebeant”). The application of these remarks to the case of cotton is sufficiently obvious.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
T. E. HOLLAND
Oxford, August 23 (1915).