THE PROTECTION OF NEUTRAL RIGHTS AT SEA The Declaration of London: Chapter II- Contraband of War.* CONTRABAND OF WAR Article 22 The following articles may, without notice, be treated as contraband of war, under the name of absolute contraband: — (1) Arms of all kinds, including arms for sporting purposes, and their distinctive component parts. (2) Projectiles, charges, and cartridges of all kinds, and their distinctive component parts. (3) Powder and explosives especially prepared for use in war. (4) Gun-mountings, limber boxes, limbers, military wagons, field forges, and their distinctive component parts. (5) Clothing and equipment of a distinctively military character. (6) All kinds of harness of a distinctively military character. (7) Saddle, draught, and pack animals suitable for use in war. (8) Articles of camp equipment, and their distinctive component parts. (9) Armour plates. (10) War-ships, including boats, and their distinctive component parts of such a nature that they can only be used on a vessel of war. (11) Implements and apparatus designed exclusively for the manufacture of munitions of war, for the manufacture or repair of arms, or war material for use on land or sea. Article 23 Articles exclusively used for war may be added to the list of absolute contraband by a declaration, which must be notified. Such notification must be addressed to the Governments of other Powers, or to their representatives accredited to the Power making the declaration. A notification made after the outbreak of hostilities is addressed only to neutral Powers. * At the Naval Conference called together by Great Britain at London the Declaration was signed, February 26, 1909, by all of the Powers represented: seven of the present belligerents, viz., Great Britain, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, Germany and Austria-Hungary, and three of the neutral nations, viz., the United States, Spain and Holland. Later, chiefly because of British opposition to the articles defining contraband of war, it failed of ratification. Lawrence, Documents Illustrative of International Law, 351 note. 1 Article 24 The following articles, susceptible of use in war as well as for purposes of peace, may, without notice, be treated as contraband of war, under the name of conditional contraband: — (1) Foodstuffs. (2) Forage and grain, suitable for feeding animals. (3) Clothing, fabrics for clothing, and boots and shoes, suitable for use in war. (4) Gold and silver in coin or bullion; paper money. (5) Vehicles of all kinds available for use in war, and their component parts. (6) Vessels, craft, and boats of all kinds; floating docks, parts of docks and their component parts. (7) Railway material, both fixed and rolling-stock, and material for telegraphs, wireless telegraphs, and telephones. (8) Balloons and flying machines and their distinctive component parts, together with accessories and articles recognisable as intended for use in connection with balloons and flying machines. (9) Fuel; lubricants. (10) Powder and explosives not specially prepared for use in war. (11) Barbed wire and implements for fixing and cutting the same. (12) Horseshoes and shoeing materials. (13) Harness and saddlery. (14) Field glasses, telescopes, chronometers, and all kinds of nautical instruments. Article 25 Articles susceptible of use in war as well as for purposes of peace, other than those enumerated in Articles 22 and 24, may be added to the list of conditional contraband by a declaration, which must be notified in the manner provided for in the second paragraph of Article 23. Article 26 If a Power waives, so far as it is concerned, the right to treat as contraband of war an article comprised in any of the classes enumerated in Articles 22 and 24, such intention shall be announced by a declaration, which must be notified in the manner provided for in the second paragraph of Article 23. Article 27 Articles which are not susceptible of use in war may not be declared contraband of war. Article 28 The following may not be declared contraband of war: (1) Raw cotton, wool, silk, jute, flax, hemp, and other raw materials of the textile industries, and yarns of the same. (2) Oil seeds and nuts; copra. (3) Rubber, resins, gums, and laces; hops. (4) Raw hides and horns, bones, and ivory. (5) Natural and artificial manures, including nitrates and phosphates for agricultural purposes. (6) Metallic ores. (7) Earths, clays, lime, chalk, stone, including marble, bricks, slates, and tiles. (8) Chinaware and glass. (9) Paper and paper-making materials. (10) Soap, paint and colours, including articles exclusively used in their manufacture, and varnish. (11) Bleaching powder, soda ash, caustic soda, salt cake, ammonia, sulphate of ammonia, and sulphate of copper. (12) Agricultural, mining, textile, and printing machinery. (13) Precious and semi-precious stones, pearls, mother-of-pearl, and coral. (14) Clocks and watches, other than chronometers. (15) Fashion and fancy goods. (16) Feathers of all kinds, hairs, and bristles. (17) Articles of household furniture and decoration; office furniture and requisites. Article 29 Likewise the following may not be treated as contraband of war: (1) Articles serving exclusively to aid the sick and wounded. They can, however, in case of urgent military necessity and subject to the payment of compensation, be requisitioned, if their destination is that specified in Article 30. (2) Articles intended for the use of the vessel in which they are found, as well as those intended for the use of her crew and passengers during the voyage. Article 30 Absolute contraband is liable to capture if it is shown to be destined to territory belonging to or occupied by the enemy, or to the armed forces of the enemy. It is immaterial whether the carriage of the goods is direct or entails transhipment or a subsequent transport by land. Article 31 Proof of the destination specified in Article 30 is complete in the following cases: (1) When the goods are documented for discharge in an enemy port, or for delivery to the armed forces of the enemy. (2) When the vessel is to call at enemy ports only, or when she is to touch at an enemy port or meet the armed forces of the enemy before reaching the neutral port for which the goods in question are documented. Article 32 When a vessel is carrying absolute contraband, her papers are conclusive proof as to the voyage on which she is engaged, unless she is found clearly out of the course indicated by her papers and unable to give adequate reasons to justify such deviation. Article 33 Conditional contraband is liable to capture if it is shown to be destined for the use of the armed forces or of a government department of the enemy State, unless in this latter case the circumstances show that the goods cannot in fact be used for the purposes of war in progress. This latter exception does not apply to a consignment coming under Article 24 (4). Article 34 The destination referred to in Article 33 is presumed to exist if the goods are consigned to enemy authorities, or to a contractor established in the enemy country who, as a matter of common knowledge, supplies articles of this kind to the enemy. A similar presumption arises if the goods are consigned to a fortified place belonging to the enemy, or other place serving as a base for the armed forces of the enemy. No such presumption, however, arises in the case of a merchant vessel bound for one of these places if it is sought to prove that she herself is contraband. In cases where the above presumptions do not arise, the destination is presumed to be innocent. The presumptions set up by this Article may be rebutted. Article 35 Conditional contraband is not liable to capture, except when found on board a vessel bound for territory belonging to or occupied by the enemy, or for the armed forces of the enemy, and when it is not to be discharged in an intervening neutral port. The ship's papers are conclusive proof both as to the voyage on which the vessel is engaged and as to the port of discharge of the goods, unless she is found clearly out of the course indicated by her papers, and unable to give adequate reasons to justify such deviation. Article 36 Notwithstanding the provisions of Article 35, conditional contraband, if shown to have the destination referred to in Article 33, is liable to capture in cases where the enemy country has no seaboard. Article 37 A vessel carrying goods liable to capture as absolute or conditional contraband may be captured on the high seas or in the territorial waters of the belligerents throughout the whole of her voyage, even if she is to touch at a port of call before reaching the hostile destination. Article 38 A vessel may not be captured on the ground that she has carried contraband on a previous occasion if such carriage is in point of fact at an end. Article 39 Contraband goods are liable to condemnation. Article 40 A vessel carrying contraband may be condemned if the contraband, reckoned either by value, weight, volume, or freight, forms more than half the cargo. Article 41 If a vessel carrying contraband is released, she may be condemned to pay the costs and expenses incurred by the captor in respect of the proceedings in the national prize court and the custody of the ship and cargo during the proceedings. Article 42 Goods which belong to the owner of the contraband and are on board the same vessel are liable to condemnation. Article 43 If a vessel is encountered at sea while unaware of the outbreak of hostilities or of the declaration of contraband which applies to her cargo, the contraband cannot be condemned except on payment of compensation; the vessel herself and the remainder of the cargo are not liable to condemnation or to the costs and expenses referred to in Article 41. The same rule applies if the master, after becoming aware of the outbreak of hostilities, or of the declaration of contraband, has had no opportunity of discharging the contraband. A vessel is deemed to be aware of the existence of a state of war, or of a declaration of contraband, if she left a neutral port subsequently to the notification to the Power to which such port belongs at the outbreak of hostilities or of the declaration of contraband respectively, provided that such notification was made in sufficient time. A vessel is also deemed to be aware of the existence of a state of war if she left an enemy port after the outbreak of hostilities. Article 44 A vessel which has been stopped on the ground that she is carrying contraband, and which is not liable to condemnation on account of the proportion of contraband on board, may, when the circumstances permit, be allowed to continue her voyage if the master is willing to hand over the contraband to the belligerent warship. The delivery of the contraband must be entered by the captor on the logbook of the vessel stopped, and the master must give the captor duly certified copies of all relevant papers. The captor is at liberty to destroy the contraband that has been handed over to him under these conditions. (Lawrence, Documents Illustrative of International Law, 336-343.) No. 1. American note, August 6, 1914, suggesting the adoption of the Declaration of London as a temporary code of naval warfare.* The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador at London. Mr. Bryan instructs Mr. Page to inquire whether the British Government is willing to agree that the laws of naval warfare as laid down *Same to the American Embassies at Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg and Paris, and to the American Legation at Brussels. |