P.S.--It may be worth while to add, for the benefit of those only who care to be provided with a clue (not to be found in the judgment) through the somewhat labyrinthine details of the question under discussion, a summary of its history. The Russian rules as to contraband are contained in several documents--viz. the "Regulations as to Naval Prize" of 1895, Arts. 11-14; the "Admiralty Instructions" of 1900, Arts. 97, 98, and the appended "Special Declaration" as to the articles considered to be contraband (partly modelled on the list of 1877); the "Imperial Order" of February 28, 1904, rule 6 (this Order keeps alive the rules of 1895 and 1900, except in so far as they are varied by it); the "Order" of March 19, 1904, defining "food" and bringing machinery of certain kinds into the list of contraband; the "Order," of April 21, 1904, bringing "raw cotton" into the list; and, lastly, the "Instructions" of September 30 and October 28, 1904, recognising, in effect, a class of "conditional" contraband, placing foodstuffs in this class, as also, ultimately, other objects "capable of warlike use and not specified in sections 1-9 of rule 6." T. E. H. Temple, July 1 (1905). COTTON AS CONTRABAND Sir,--Your correspondent "Judex" will rejoice, as I do, that cotton has now been declared to be "absolute contraband." May I, however, suggest that the topic should be discussed without any reference to the fortunately unratified Declaration of London, that premature attempt to codify the law of maritime warfare, claiming, misleadingly, that its rules "correspond in substance with the generally recognised principles of international law"? It is surely regrettable that, by the Order in Council of August 20, 1914, our Government adopted the provisions of the Declaration "during the present hostilities," and "subject to various additions and modifications," the list of which has since been considerably extended. This half-hearted course of action painfully recalls certain vicious methods of legislation by reference, and was additionally uncalled for, since, as has been shown by recent events, about two-thirds of the rules laid down by the Declaration are inapplicable to modern warfare.