CONTRABAND LIST

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20080, 28 October 1939, Page 6

CONTRABAND LIST

PRACTICE CITED BRITISH PROCEDURE LONDON PRESS VIFAV ANSWER TO SOVIET (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Tress Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. 1 p.m. RUGBY, Ocl. 27. In further comment concerning the reply which the Soviet Government has made to the British intimation to nations which are neutral in the war on the imposition of the contraband control scheme. The Times states: “There is not at present in existence any treatv on the subject to which Britain and the Soviet are both parties, “In default of such an agreement

follows’that there is no available criterion cf international law except the pratcice of the past and the British list of contraband conforms, with the rules generally accepted by belligerents and neutrals, including Russia; in the four years of the war."

The Times points out that the Soviet protest is mainly directed to the inclusion in. the text of food and fuel and recalls Hint in this connection an article was published yesterday by the well-known economist, Sir William Beveridge, in which he subjected the distinction between food and munitions of war to a close analysis and showed that Marshal Goering's antithesis of butter or guns had more literal significance than was commonly appreciated, since practically all facts can be converted into propellants. Nazi Lack of Fats Both Sir William Beveridge and The Times editorial say it is .from lack of fats, if anything, that the German population is most likely to suffer if the Nazis continue the war. “The dilemna between starving the people and starving the .guns is the point to which each belligerent must, seek to drive the other," declared Sir William Beveridge. The Times commented: “If war is ever legitimate, it is certainly ligitimate to pose as an enemy with tHs delemna and the morality of the bloekaders’ act will be identical with the morality of the cause for which they wage war. Our present cause we have already submitted with confidence to the judgment of the world.”