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.

IS COAL CONTRABAND OF WAR?

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, "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."

I may say that the words which I have italicised must, I think, have
been mistranslated or mistransmitted. Their intention is, doubtless,
substantially that which was more clearly expressed in the Japanese
proclamation of 1894 by the words: "Either the enemy's fleet at sea or a
hostile port used exclusively or mainly for naval or military
equipment."

A phrase in your issue of to-day with reference to the Cardiff coal
trade suggests that it may be worth while to touch upon the existence of
a widely-spread confusion between the grounds on which export of coal
may be prohibited by a neutral country and those which justify its
confiscation, although on board a neutral ship, by a belligerent. A
neutral State restrains, under certain circumstances, the export of
coal, not because coal is contraband, but because such export is
converting the neutral territory in