They would like to know what articles _ancipitis usus_ ("used for purposes of war or peace according to circumstances") will be treated by the United States as contraband, and with what penalty the carriage of such articles will be visited--_i.e._ whether by confiscation or merely by pre-emption.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T.E.HOLLAND.
Oxford, May 9 (1898).
The four letters which next follow also relate to the two classes of contraband goods, with especial reference to the character attributed to foodstuffs, coal and cotton.
On foodstuffs, see the _Report of the Royal Commission on the Supply of Food, &c., in Time of War_, 1905.

_Cf._ also _infra._, pp.

174, 176, 177.

They were placed by the unratified Declaration of London, Art.

24, in the class of conditional contraband; as is also coal.