First World War Centennial

CHAPTER XIX

CONTRABAND AS FURTHER DEFINED BY RECENT PROCLAMATIONS

ATTENTION has been called to the fact hat shortly after the outbreak of the war the Allies adopted Articles 22 and 24 of the Declaration of London which desig­nates, with minor changes, eleven groups of absolute contraband and fourteen groups which belong to the first class of conditional contraband.

Sept. 4, 1914, Ambassador Gerard notified the United States Secretary of State that he found the list which the German Government intended to treat as contraband agreed with the same articles, and on Sept. 7th, Ambassa­dor Penfield followed with a similar announce­ment for the Austro-Hungarian Government from Vienna. The latter date marks the nearest approach which the belligerent Powers came to putting in practice the formal provisions of an instrument which was supposed to reflect the best thought of their statesmen, and which had been drafted to meet the exigencies of war.

Hardly had the United States, under date of Oct. 22, 1914, withdrawn the sug­gestion to the European combatants "that the Declaration of London be adopted as a temporary code of naval warfare," than Great Britain, Oct. 29, 1914, supplementing a proclamation of Sept. 21st, of the same year, consolidated lists of contraband already published with additions thereto. This new list added to Schedule I. (absolute contra­band): Sulphuric acid; range finders and their component parts; hematite iron ore and hematite pig iron; iron pyrites; nickel ore and nickel; ferrochrome and chrome ore; copper unwrought; lead, pig, sheet or pipe; aluminium; ferrosilica; barbed wire and im­plements for fixing and cutting the same (heretofore listed with conditional contraband of the first class); motor vehicles of all kinds and their component parts; motor tires—rubber; mineral oils, and motor spirits, except lubricating oils.

The list amended Schedule II. (condi­tional contraband to be regarded as absolute) by eliminating barbed wire and adding: Sulphur: glycerine; hides of all kinds, dry or wet; pig skins, raw or dressed; leather, undressed or dressed, suitable for saddler, harness, or military boots. The rearrange­ment placed twenty-six groups under the head of absolute contraband, and fifteen under the head of conditional contraband of the first class, an addition of sixteen dis­tinctive classes of goods or materials.

Considerable as was the readjustment thus formally decreed, it proved to be insufficient to meet the requirements of the United King­dom, for under date of Dec. 23, 1914, March 10, 1915, and March 11, 1915, there were added to Schedule I. ingredients of explosives: Resinous products, camphor and turpentine (oil and spirit); submarine sound signalling apparatus; various metals and ores (added to groups already numbered); raw wool, wool tops and noils and woolen and worsted yarns; tin, chloride of tin, tin ore; castor oil; paraf­fine wax; copper iodide; hides of various sorts; ammonia and its salts, etc. When it is noted that under the single head of ex­plosives twenty or thirty acid, chemicals, and products of coal tar are specifically mentioned, the list of forbidden merchandise becomes bewildering, the situation being in no way improved by the fact that Class I. of Conditional Contraband (to be regarded as "Absolute") was further revised.

It is hoped that this brief review will give the reader some idea of the extraor­dinary restraints placed upon neutral trade. Incomplete as it is (since by subsequent pro­clamation of the French and Russian govern­ments the British list is made their own), it will serve to indicate the attitude of the Allies up to the spring of the current year. (The action of the Central Powers is less significant. Not being in a position to interfere with shipping in the great water­ways of the world, they have naturally been more modest in their declaration of prohibited merchandise, but through Germany under date of April 15, 1915, have taken a step in the other direction by indicating fifteen groups of articles which cannot be declared contraband of war.)

What is to be done in the premises? With decided objections to becoming embroiled in the cataclysm over seas; with a feeling that the group of belligerents, which controls the oceans by their naval forces, are within their rights, if precedents are to be considered; and with a large percentage of its people sym­pathetically disposed to the Allies' cause—the United States is yet as definitely affected as if it were itself at war: (1) By restrictions of friendly Powers; (2) by the interpretations placed upon those restrictions.

Can anything be suggested to right matters? The natural answer is—"No! Not if Americans are content to tramp in the beaten path of custom's treadmill." If, on the other hand, our people are keen to recognize the necessity of fairly treating combatants who are, for the most part, within what has heretofore been recognized as belligerent rights, but eager to do away with doctrines that are antiquated and prejudicial to the best interests of the race, they may readily say to their Department of State:

1 . Use your good offices during the present war to secure from belligerents such modi­fications of their contraband lists as will relieve the neutral shipper from the embar­rassment of acting in constant uncertainty regarding the sort of shipments permitted him.

2. Arrange so that opportunity shall offer at the end of the war for the United States to push for such a curtailment of the whole doctrine of contraband as will leave neutral shipping unaffected by belligerency up to the moment when it enters a war zone. Better, as has already been suggested, that a loaded United States merchantman should enter forbidden waters with the anticipation of having her entire cargo, whatever its nature, sequestrated, than that every exporting house and all skippers should be obliged to retain a staff of expert chemists and physicists to tell them whether or not their vessels may poke their prows out of home harbors with­out being haled before distant prize courts.

As matters stand, a United States ship loaded with tooth powder leaves port with the distinct chance of being overhauled by an allied cruiser; charged with carrying contra­band, on the claim that the tooth powder is nothing more nor less than some basic proposition with a name familiar to chemists only, or because the captain of the war vessel is in doubt; and carried out of his course to await the decision of a court whose docket is too crowded to give him any hope of having his case adjudicated.

The instance in question presumes the captor to be British or French. If it hap­pened to be German, under the Imperial Gov­ernment's interpretation of existing treaties, is there not reasonable ground for believing that both ship and cargo would be im­mediately consigned to the bottom of the sea?