Office of the Historian

File No. 763.72112/2527

The Vice Consul at London (Reed) to the Secretary of State

London, April 20, 1916 .
[Received May 9.]

[Despatch not printed, as it merely quotes from and summarizes the enclosure.]

[Enclosure]

List of Articles Declared to be Contraband of War Presented to Parliament

The articles declared to be contraband of war in the Proclamations now in force have been arranged alphabetically in the accompanying list. It is hoped that this will be convenient to all parties concerned.

The list comprises the articles which have been declared to be absolute contraband as well as those which have been declared to be conditional contraband. The circumstances of the present war are so peculiar that His Majesty’s Government consider that for practical purposes the distinction between the two classes of contraband has ceased to have any value. So large a proportion of the inhabitants of the enemy country are taking part, directly or indirectly, in the war that no real distinction can now be drawn between the armed forces and the civilian population. Similarly, the enemy Government has taken control, by a series of decrees and orders, of practically all the articles in the list of conditional contraband, so that they are now available for Government use. So long as these exceptional conditions continue our belligerent rights with respect to the two kinds of contraband are the same, and our treatment of them must be identical.

Foreign Office, April 13, 1916.

list of articles

  • Acetic acid and acetates.
  • Acetic ether.
  • Acetones, and raw and finished materials, usable for their preparation.
  • Aircraft of all kinds, including aeroplanes, airships, balloons, and their component parts, together with accessories and articles suitable for use in connection with aircraft.
  • Aluminium, alumina, and salts of aluminium.
  • Ammonia liquor.
  • Ammonium salts.
  • Aniline and its derivatives.
  • Animals, saddle, draught, or pack, suitable, or which may become suitable, for use in war.
  • Antimony, together with the sulphides and oxides of antimony.
  • Apparatus designed exclusively for the manufacture of munitions of war, or for the manufacture or repair of arms or of war material for use on land or sea.
  • Armour plates.
  • Arms of all kinds, including arms for sporting purposes, and their component parts.
  • Arsenic and its compounds.
  • Arsenical ore.
  • Articles especially adapted for use in the manufacture or repair of tyres.
  • Asbestos.
  • Barbed wire.
  • Barium chlorate and perchlorate.
  • Bauxite.
  • Benzol and its mixtures and derivatives.
  • Bladders, guts, casings, and sausage skins.
  • Bones in any form, whole or crushed, and bone ash.
  • Boots and shoes suitable for use in war.
  • Borax, boric acid, and other boron compounds.
  • Bromine.
  • Calcium acetate, calcium nitrate, and calcium carbide. Camp equipments, articles of, and their component parts.
  • Camphor.
  • Capsicum.
  • Carbon disulphide.
  • Carbon, halogen compounds of.
  • Carbonyl chloride.
  • Carborundum in all forms.
  • Casein.
  • Caustic potash and caustic soda.
  • Celluloid.
  • Charges and cartridges of all kinds and their component parts.
  • Chlorides, metallic (except chloride of sodium) and metalloidic.
  • Chlorine.
  • Chrome ore.
  • Chronometers.
  • Clothing and fabrics for clothing suitable for use in war.
  • Clothing of a distinctively military character.
  • Cobalt.
  • Copper pyrites and other copper ores.
  • Copper unwrought and part wrought, copper wire, alloys and compounds of copper.
  • Cork, including cork dust.
  • Corundum, natural and artificial (alundum), in all forms.
  • Cotton, raw, linters, cotton waste, cotton yarns, cotton piece-goods, and other cotton products capable of being used in the manufacture of explosives.
  • Cresol and its mixtures and derivatives.
  • Cyanamide.
  • Docks, parts of.
  • Emery in all forms.
  • Equipment of a distinctively military character.
  • Ethyl alcohol.
  • Explosives, whether specially prepared for use in war or not.
  • Ferro alloys, including ferro-tungsten, ferro-molybdenum, ferro-manganese, ferro-vanadium, and ferro-chrome.
  • Field forges and their component parts.
  • Field glasses.
  • Flax.
  • Floating docks and their component parts.
  • Foodstuffs.
  • Forage and feeding stuffs for animals.
  • Formic ether.
  • Fuel, other than mineral oils.
  • Fuming sulphuric acid.
  • Furs utilisable for clothing suitable for use in war.
  • Glycerine.
  • Gold.
  • Gun mountings and their component parts.
  • Hair, animal, of all kinds, and tops, noils, and yarns of animal hair.
  • Harness and saddlery.
  • Harness of a distinctively military character, all kinds of.
  • Hemp.
  • Hides of cattle, buffaloes, and horses.
  • Horseshoes and shoeing material.
  • Hydrochloric acid.
  • Implements designed exclusively for the manufacture of munitions of war, or for the manufacture or repair of arms or of war material for use on land or sea.
  • Implements for fixing and cutting barbed wire.
  • Iodine and its compounds.
  • Iron, electrolytic.
  • Iron, hæmatite and hæmatite iron ore.
  • Iron pyrites.
  • Kapok.
  • Lathes capable of being employed in the manufacture of munitions of war.
  • Lead and lead ore.
  • Leather belting, hydraulic leather, pump leather.
  • Leather, undressed or dressed, suitable for saddlery, harness, military boots, or military clothing.
  • Limbers and limber-boxes and their component parts.
  • Lubricants.
  • Machines capable of being employed in the manufacture of munitions of war.
  • Manganese and manganese ore.
  • Manganese dioxide.
  • Maps and plans of any place within the territory of any belligerent, or within the area of military operations, on a scale of 4 miles to 1 inch or any larger scale, and reproductions on any scale, by photography, or otherwise, of such maps or plans.
  • Materials especially adapted for use in the manufacture or repair of tyres.
  • Materials used in the manufacture of explosives.
  • Mercury.
  • Methyl alcohol.
  • Military waggons and their component parts.
  • Mineral oils, Including benzine and motor spirit.
  • Molybdenum and molybdenite.
  • Motor vehicles of all kinds and their component parts and accessories.
  • Naphthalene and its mixtures and derivatives.
  • Nautical instruments, all kinds of.
  • Negotiable instruments.
  • Nickel and nickel ore.
  • Nitric acid and nitrates of all kinds.
  • Oils and fats, animal, fish, and vegetable, other than those capable of use as lubricants, and not including essential oils.
  • Oleaginous seeds, nuts, and kernels.
  • Oleum.
  • Paper money.
  • Paraffin wax.
  • Peppers.
  • Phenol (carbolic acid) and its mixtures and derivatives.
  • Phosgene.
  • Phosphorus and its compounds.
  • Potassium salts.
  • Powders, whether specially prepared for use in war or not.
  • Projectiles of all kinds and their component parts.
  • Prussiate of soda.
  • Railway materials, both fixed and rolling stock.
  • Ramie.
  • Rangefinders and their component parts.
  • Rattans.
  • Realisable securities.
  • Resinous products.
  • Rubber (including raw, waste, and reclaimed rubber, solutions and jellies containing rubber, or any other preparations containing rubber, balata, and gutta-percha, and the following varieties of rubber, viz., Borneo, Guayule, Jelutong, Palembang, Pontianac, and all other substances containing caoutchouc), and goods made wholly or partly of rubber.
  • Sabadilla seeds and preparations therefrom.
  • Scheelite.
  • Searchlights and their component parts.
  • Selenium.
  • Silver.
  • Skins of calves, pigs, sheep, goats, and deer.
  • Skins utilisable for clothing suitable for use in war.
  • Soap.
  • Sodium chlorate and perchlorate.
  • Sodium cyanide.
  • Sodium.
  • Solvent naphtha and its mixtures and derivatives.
  • Starch.
  • Steel containing tungsten or molybdenum.
  • Submarine sound signalling apparatus.
  • Sulphur.
  • Sulphur dioxide.
  • Sulphuric acid.
  • Sulphuric ether.
  • Tanning substances of all kinds, including quebracho wood and extracts for use in tanning.
  • Telegraphs, materials for.
  • Telephones, materials for.
  • Telescopes.
  • Tin, chloride of tin, and tin-ore.
  • Toluol and its mixtures and derivatives.
  • Tools capable of being employed in the manufacture of munitions of war.
  • Tungsten.
  • Turpentine (oil and spirit).
  • Tyres for motor vehicles and for cycles.
  • Urea.
  • Vanadium.
  • Vegetable fibres and yarns made there-from.
  • Vehicles of all kinds, other than motor vehicles, available for use in war, and their component parts.
  • Vessels, craft, and boats of all kinds.
  • Warships, including boats and their component parts of such a nature that they can only be used on a vessel of war.
  • Wireless telegraphs, materials for.
  • Wolframite.
  • Wood tar and wood tar oil.
  • Wool, raw, combed, or carded; wool waste; wool tops and noils; woolen or worsted yarns.
  • Xylol and its mixtures and derivatives.
  • Zinc ore.