I share his desire for some explanation of the telegram which reached you on the 12th of this month from British Columbia.

One would like to know: (1) What is "the Government," if any, which has instructed the Empress Line not to forward foodstuffs to Japan; (2) whether the refusal relates to foodstuffs generally, or only to those with a destination for warlike use; (3) what is meant by the statement that "the steamers of the Empress Line belong to the Naval Reserve"?
I presume the meaning to be that the line is subsidised with a view to the employment of the ships of the company as British cruisers when Great Britain is at war.

The bearing of this fact upon the employment of the ships when Great Britain is at peace is far from apparent.

It is, of course, possible that the Government contract with the company may have been so drawn, _ex abundanti cautela_, as greatly to restrict what would otherwise have been the legitimate trade of the company.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T.E.HOLLAND.
Oxford, February 20 (1904).
COTTON AS CONTRABAND OF WAR Sir,--The text of the decision of the Court of Appeal at St.Petersburg in the case of the _Calchas_ has at length reached this country, and we are thus informed, upon the highest authority, though, perhaps, not in the clearest language, of the meaning which is now to be placed upon the Russian notification that cotton is contraband of war.
This notification, promulgated on April 21, 1904, was received with general amazement, not diminished by an official gloss to the effect that it "applied only to raw cotton suitable for the manufacture of explosives, and not to yarn or tissues." It must be remembered that at the date mentioned, and for some months afterwards, Russia stoutly maintained that all the articles enumerated in her list of contraband of February 28, 1904, and in the additions to that list, were "absolutely" such; _i.e._ were confiscable if in course of carriage to any enemy's port, irrespectively of the character of that port, or of the use to which the articles would probably be put.

It was only after much correspondence, and the receipt of strong protests from Great Britain and the United States, that Russia consented to recognise the well-known distinction between "absolute" and "conditional" contraband; the latter class consisting of articles useful in peace as well as for war, the character of which must, therefore, depend upon whether they are, in point of fact, destined for warlike or for peaceful uses.