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Show UNCERTAINTIES CONCERNING CONTRABAND. Many Americans ship tooth brushes to Amsterdam1 Surely. Copper? By no means. At least so says England, thus raising neath the whole ques- 1 tion of what Is contraband of war. According to the ordinary- deflni ! tions, contraband lg anything which is forbidden to be supplied by neu- : trals to belligerents. But wuai is for-1 uiddrn. There's the rub. Nobody 1 knows. A nation may strike at its enemy's trade by sea in three ways. It may forbid the shipment of certain articles arti-cles from Its home ports. That is Its own affair and it may do as it likes, j Or it may blockade with its war ves- 1 scls the ports of the enemy, thus pro-venting pro-venting an commerce entering them. And finally, It may announce a list of J contraband articles, which it claims the right to seize on the ground that ! they ghe aid to tho military forces1 of the enemy. There always have been disputes about what mav properly be set down a3 contraband A nation may attempt to extend the list in order to harm the enemy. The temptation to do this is great because of the saving of the expense ex-pense of an extensive blockade. A conference of the powers at London In I9u9 tried to classify articles as contraband, conditionally contraband (contraband when intended for military mili-tary uses). and non-contraband Eleven groups were put on the absolute abso-lute contraband list. But England has more than doubled the number since the outbreak of wai and has Increased In-creased the conditional contraband list. WI10 Is to determine what's what? International tribunals at The Hague aren't doing a rushing business this season. Apparently the only thing to do Is to worry alonjr. each side trying to be as reasonable as possible. Kan- I sas City Star. j 00 |