CONTRABAND OF WAR (It. contrabban do, Sp., Port. contraband°, from ML. contra bannu-m, contraband, from contra, against + bendam, proclamation, front 011G. bee, Ger. Bann, AS. boon, Engl. ban; ultimately con nected with Lat. Rini, Gk. trpijpat, phPnai, to speak). Goods of such character as to be liable to seizure by a belligerent in trade between a neutral and the enemy in time of war. Inter national complications arise over the definition of what, in a particular instance, constitutes contraband. To some extent this has been defined by treaty, especially by the United States, but the changes hi methods of modern warfare render the list a constantly shifting one. Great Britain has adopted the classification of (a) goods absolutely contraband, and (b) goods occasionally roe trabu ; i.e. making the decision depend upon the condition of being in tended for warlike use. Under the latter head are included provisions, coal, horses, fittings for steam vessels, etc. Thus, in the case of a Swedish ship in the War of 1S12 bound for the neutral port of Bilbao with a cargo' of grain intended for the use of the British fleet lying there, the cargo was subject to confiscation as contraband. So coal came up for discussion in the Crimean War, Great Britain claiming it to be included under the head of occasional contra band. France in the war of 1S59 refused to treat coal as contraband. The United States at the time of the Civil War adopted the Eng lish position, as did Germany in the war of 1S70, while Russia follows France. Such dif ferences threaten to furnish serious controversy in the event of war between any of the great commercial nations. The rules of international law provide that subjects of neutrals may carry contraband to either belligerent, but must do so at their own risk. So neutral merchants may trade in arms, ammunition, and stores in time of war as in time of peace, but either belligerent may capture such goods as are of direct and im mediate use in war, if they cannot intercept them in their passage to the enemy while not within neutral jurisdiction. While a neutral is bound to
prevent the departure of armed expeditions from its shores and the supplying of fighting gear to belligerent vessels in its ports, no duty is im posed of restraining contraband trade, though it has no right to interfere in behalf of subjects whose property is seized by one belligerent on the way to another, provided it belongs to the chiss of forbidden commodities.
Three requisites are necessary to constitute the offense of carrying contraband: (I) Sale and transport of contraband goods within a neutral territory is permissible, but they may not he sent across the frontier to a belligerent by land or sea. (2) The goods must be in tended eventually for a hostile destination. (3) The offense is completed with the deposit of the contraband cargo at the belligerent destination.
The ship when captured is generally taken to a, prize court by the captor, and the penalty of conviction is the confiscation of the contraband goods, unless the owner of the contraband also has ownership in the vessel, in which ease the ship, or his share therein, is likewise confiscated, and/ also any innocent goods of his ownership. False papers or misrepresentation as to des tination may lead to the ship's condemnation. The carrying of agents or dispatches of an enemy must be distinguished as more properly unneutral service than carrying of contraband. The Trent Affair (q.v.) conies under the appli cation of the rules relating to this question.
The term contraband of war was inappropri ately though ingeniously applied during the Civil War by Gen. B. F. Butler, while in command at Fortress Monroe, to captured slaves, as a ground for retaining them when demanded by their Southern owners. Consult the authorities re ferred to under NEUTRALITY ; BELLIGERENTS; BLOCKADE; INTERNATIONAL LAW.