Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72112/26

The Ambassador in Great Britain (Page) to the Secretary of State

American Embassy,
London, August 5, 1914, 10 p.m.
[Received August 6, 6:30 a.m.]

[Telegram]

278. The Foreign Office has just transmitted to me the following list of articles which the British Government have declared to be absolute and conditional contraband, respectively, during the present war:1

[The following articles will be treated as absolute contraband:]

1.
Arms of all kinds, including arms for sporting purposes, and their distinctive component parts.
2.
Projectiles, charges, and cartridges of all kinds, and their distinctive component parts.
3.
Powder and explosives specially prepared for use in war.
4.
Gun mountings, limber boxes, limbers, military waggons, field forges, and their distinctive component parts.
5.
Clothing and equipment of a distinctively military character.
6.
All kinds of harness of a distinctively military character.
7.
Saddle, draught, and pack animals suitable for use in war.
8.
Articles of camp equipment and their distinctive component parts.
9.
Armour plates.
10.
Warships, includings boats, and their distinctive component parts of such a nature that they can only be used on a vessel of war.
11.
Aeroplanes, airships, balloons, and aircraft of all kinds, and their component parts, together with accessories and articles recognisable as intended for use in connection with balloons and aircraft.
12.
Implements and apparatus designed exclusively for the manufacture of munitions of war, for the manufacture or repair of arms, or war material for use on land and sea.

The following articles will be treated as conditional contraband:

1.
Foodstuffs.
2.
Forage and grain suitable for feeding animals.
3.
Clothing, fabrics for clothing, and boots and shoes, suitable for use in war.
4.
Gold and silver in coin or bullion; paper money.
5.
Vehicles of all kinds available for use in war and their component parts.
6.
Vessels, craft, and boats of all kinds; floating docks, parts of docks, and their component parts.
7.
Railway material, both fixed and rolling stock, and materials for telegraphs, wireless telegraphs, and telephones.
8.
Fuel; lubricants.
9.
Powder and explosives not specially prepared for use in war.
10.
Barbed wire, and implements for fixing and cutting the same.
11.
Horseshoes and shoeing materials.
12.
Harness and saddlery.
13.
Field glasses, telescopes, chronometers, and all kinds of nautical instruments.

American Ambassador
  1. These correspond to the lists in Articles 22 and 24 of the Declaration of London, with the exception of the transfer of aircraft from the conditional classification to the absolute. For the text of the Declaration of London, see Foreign Relations, 1909, pp. 318 et, seq.↩