From the very beginning of International Law a belligerent has been allowedto prevent a neutral from supplying his enemy with things capable of beingused immediately in warSuch things are called technically 'Contraband ofWar,and may be condemned independently of all question as to the neutralityof the ownerThe ship and cargo are taken into a port of the captorthecontraband is condemned in a prize courtbut the fate of the ship itselfvariesIf the ship belongs to the owner of the contrabandor if the ownerof the ship is privy to the carriage of the contrabandthe ship is condemned;but not so if the ship belongs to a different ownerwho knows nothing ofthe destination of the contraband commoditiesThis branch of InternationalLaw is complex and difficultbut it owes its intricacy and difficulty toone special questionwhat are the articles stigmatised as contrabandFromthe very firstGrotius had laid down that things directly used in war --for exampleweapons -were contrabandHe also ruled that things uselessin wararticles of luxury as he described themwere not contrabandButoutside these categories there were a great number of things capable of employmentboth in war and peace -res ancipitis usus -and it is in regard to thesethat innumerable questions have arisenAre articles of naval construction-for examplethe raw materials of sails and cordage -contrabandDothey become so at any particular stage of manufactureAre ironbrasssteel,etccontrabandAre coals and horsesAre provisions contrabandTo thesequestions all sorts of answers have been givenIn many special treatiesthe list of contraband and non-contraband commodities is givenand the practiceof states is extremely variousOn the whole the most general rule whichcan be laid down is thatwith the exception of weapons or munitions of war,the contrabandor non-contrabandcharacter of the cargo must depend onits destinationand on the nature of the particular war which is going on.
The commodity most recently sought to be brought into the list as contrabandis coalEnglandthe great exporter of coalrefused to admit its beingnecessarily contrabandbut in the war of 187the English Government declinedto allow British coal to be carried to a French fleet that was lying in theNorth SeaThe most vehement of the disputes has beenperhapsthat aboutprovisionsAt the end of the last centurywhen the great war of the Revolutionhad beamEnglish statesmen believed the French population to be on the pointof starvationand that the French were suffering great distress from scarcityof food is now most fully establishedThe English Government therefore seizedall ships bound to a French port which were laden with provisionsAs theirenemy was believed by them to be on the point of abandoning the contest throughwant of provisionsthey refused to allow the stock of provisions to be increased.
