tain circumstances are contraband, as, for instance,
where they are intended for the supply of a belligerent garrison as well
as in less obvious cases, but any decision which considered foodstuffs
generally as contraband would be disquieting to all neutral interests.

One writer has asserted that such an innovation would not be alarming to
Great Britain as long as she remained predominant at sea, since the more
effectual her sea power were declared to be in preventing sustenance
from going over sea to her enemy the better it would be for English
predominance. It is believed by this writer that during the existence of
this supremacy at sea she would be able to protect the passage of
general foodstuffs from foreign countries to her own ports. He
concludes, however: "Of course if we lose our predominance at sea it is
another matter. But then, e finita la Musica."[59]

[Footnote 59: Thos. Gibson Bowles, Jan. 4, 1900. For. Rel., 1900, p.
546.]

The acceptance of the principle that foodstuffs are contraband of war,
it need hardly be said, is not even a remote probability except under
very exceptional circumstances where they are for the immediate supply
of the enemy's army or navy, and in most cases of this kind they can
usually be confiscated as enemy's property without a direct implication
of a distinctly contraband character. In other words, the use for which
they are intended may give reasonable ground for the conclusive
presumption that they are for the enemy's immediate supply, whether the
title to property in them vests in the enemy or in some other agency,
and the last question is always to be decided by the prize court of the
particular country which has made the seizure. The decision should be
based upon a careful examination of the evidence which is submitted to
the court, and not presumed from the fact that the political power has
exercised the belligerent right of visit, search and detention. The
final decision of confiscation rests with the prize court.

By way of recapitulation it may be pointed out that the goods seized or
detained by the English authorities in South African waters were shipped
by American merchants and manufacturers, many of them on regular monthly
orders to alleged reputable merchants in Lorenzo Marques, Delagoa Bay,
in Portuguese territory. Certain consignments were intended for alleged
reputable firms in Johannesburg, South African Republic. The articles
composing the cargoes of the shi