THE FOOD SUPPLY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 979, 21 November 1910, Page 5

THE FOOD SUPPLY.

Tho Declaration of London was. the outcome of a conference composed of representatives of Britain, Germany, . United States, Austria, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, •Holland, and Russia. With regard to contraband the British delegates admitted foodstuffs to the list of articles which, under certain conditions, may be contraband (i.0., liable to seizure)) though in the past British Governments have always resolutely resisted such an interpretation. The importance of,tho question is enormous, as upon it may depend the safety of food supply in. war. Conditional contraband" became ' liable to seizure if "it were . consigned to tho hostile authorities, or to a merchant established in tho hostile country, and when it is notorious that such merchant furnishes to the enemy objects and materials of this nature." The effect of this clause apparently is that food consigned to any British merchant or trader might bo seized,: as ho wbuld be! established in tho "hostile country," and would supply "tho. enemy," which means tho whole hostile people as well. as tho British armed forces. A ship is ,not to be liable to seizure unless" the contraband on board reached one-half tho cargo. ; Admiral Malian, in a letter to "The Times, declared that the right of maritime 'capture is the principal, if not the only, strong weapon of offence Britain possesses against the Continent. Ho adds that. to bring the pressure of. war to bear' on a whole population, and not merely the armies in tho field, is the very spirit of. modern warfare, and is the least inhuman of all the inevitable inhumanities'of war, because it deters war and hastens' peace. ■ • ' Mr. Thomas Gibson Bowles, Liberal member for King's . Lynn, the wellknown writer on naval topics, recently published a book, entitled Sea Law and Sea Power." In it he denounces the Declaration of London. Mr. Bowles declares that if the Declaration is ratified, Great Britain, by theso new-laws, would be. prevented from using the Navy's powers in tho only effectual manner, and would bo strangling its own fleet on its own sands.