The Soviet Note is understood to have been received in London with considerable surprise, and it is said that there is no likelihood of the arguments it contains being admitted.
British contraband policy and practice are stated to be fully in accordance with international law. Belligerents are entitled to specify articles useful in the prosecution of war, which they will regard as contraband, and the classes of goods treated as contraband in the British proclamation of September 3 is said to correspond closely with those proclaimed to be contraband by both sides in the last war, including the United States. For instance, fuel, one of the classes of goods to the inclusion of which exception is taken in' the Soviet Note, is stated to be an essential material in the conduct of a modern war, while cotton, which is also mentioned, is widely used in the manufacture of explosives. Foodstuffs were treated as conditional contraband long ago as the 18th century.
As an appeal is made in the Soviet Note to the 1909 declaration of London, it is recalled that, although that declaration was never fully ratified by any Power, an attempt to apply it was made by Britain in the early stages of the last war, This attempt broke down, and as it excluded from the list of contraband such articles as metallic ones and cotton, its failure is not surprising.
Regarding the practice followed by Britain, in controlling trade in contraband, of diverting ships to specified ports, this is adopted, it is stated, owing to the proved impossibility of searching and examining at sea cargoes of large ships carrying a ied assortment of general merchandise, Which was the old practice.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.