es were adopted
which figure in the "Convention on restrictions in the right of capture"
(No. 11 of the series as set out in the General Act, see Peace
Conference). They are as follows:--

ART. I.--The postal correspondence of neutrals or belligerents,
whatever its official or private character may be, found on the high
seas on board a neutral or enemy ship is inviolable. If the ship is
detained, the correspondence is forwarded by the captor with the
least possible delay.

The provisions of the preceding paragraph do not apply, in case of
violation of blockade, to correspondence destined for, or proceeding
from, a blockaded port.

ART. II.--The inviolability of postal correspondence does not exempt
a neutral mail ship from the laws and customs of maritime war as to
neutral merchant ships in general. The ship, however, may not be
searched except when absolutely necessary, and then only with as much
consideration and expedition as possible.

Foodstuffs and pre-emption.

As regards food-stuffs Great Britain has long and consistently held that
provisions and liquors fit for the consumption of the enemy's naval or
military forces are contraband. Her Prize Act, however, provides a
palliative, in the case of "naval or victualling stores," for the
penalty attaching to absolute contraband, the lords of the admiralty
being entitled to exercise a right of pre-emption over such stores, i.e.
to purchase them without condemnation in a prize court. In practice,
purchases are made at the market value of the goods, with an additional
10% for loss of profit.

On the continent of Europe no such palliative has yet been adopted; but
moved by the same desire to distinguish unmistakable from, so to speak,
constructive contraband, and to protect trade against the vexation of
uncertainty, many continental jurists have come to argue conditional
contraband away altogether. This change of opinion has especially
manifested itself in the discussions on the subject in the Institute of
International Law, a body composed exclusively of recognized
international jurists. The rules this body adopted in 1896, though they
do not represent the unanimous feeling of its members, may be taken as
the view of a large proportion of them. The majority comprised German,
Danish, Italian, Dutch and French specialists. The rules adopted contain
a clause, which, after declaring conditional contraband abolished,
states t