Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

186 APPENDIX III.

1914, and this particular method of injuring the enemy may, therefore, for the moment, be disregarded.

No blockade of Germany was declared until March 1g15, and therefore up to that date we had to rely exclusively on the right to capture contraband.

II.— CONTRABAND.

4. By the established classification goods are divided into three classes :—

(a) Goods primarily used for warlike purposes.

(6) Goods which may be equally used for either warlike or peaceful purposes.

(¢) Goods which are exclusively used for peaceful purposes. 5. Under the law of contraband, goods in the first class may be seized if they can be proved to be going to the enemy country ; goods in the second class may be seized if they can be proved to be going to the enemy Government or its armed forces; goods in the third class must be allowed to pass free. As to the articles which fall within any particular one of these classes, there has been no general agreement in the past, and the attempts of belligerents to enlarge the first class at the expense of the second, and the second at the expense of the third, have led to considerable friction with neutrals.

6. Under the rules of prize law, as laid down and administered by Lord Stowell, goods were not regarded as destined for an enemy country unless they were to be discharged in a port in that country; but the American Prize Courts in the Civil War found themselves compelled by the then existing conditions of commerce to apply and develop the doctrine of continuous voyage, under which goods which could be proved to be ultimately intended for an enemy country were not exempted from seizure on the ground that they were first to be discharged in an intervening neutral port. This doctrine, although hotly contested by many publicists, had never been