§ Sir GEORGE SCOTT ROBERTSONasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware that, during the Russo-Japanese War, flour going to Korsakof, in the island of Saghalien, where no military operations were carried on, was seized and condemned by the Russians; that similarly rice bound for Newchwang was captured by Japanese on the ground that, although intended for the Chinese, it might meet the requirements of Europeans, and also salt for Nicolaeosk because fish are preserved at that place; and was there any declaration by Russia and Japan before the outbreak of hostilities that foodstuffs were conditional or absolute contraband?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThe facts are substantially as stated. The notification issued by Russia and Japan, respectively, on the outbreak of hostilities, and the modifications made by the first-named Power as a result of representations made by His Majesty's Government, are fully set out in Parliamentary Paper No. 1, 1905.
§ Sir GEORGE SCOTT ROBERTSONasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, whether he is aware that cotton consigned to private Japanese firms and captured by the Russians during July, 1904, in the "Calchas," bound for Shanghai, Yokohama, and Kobe, was condemned as contraband of war by the Russian prize courts on the ground that near Kobe at Osaka there was a large military arsenal; and whether, if great Britain were at war with a great naval power and the Declaration of London, which places cotton on the free list, remained unratified, raw cotton consigned to Lancashire in neutral bottoms might be declared contraband of war?
Mr. McKINNON WOODThe purport of the judgment of the Supreme Court at St. Petersburg in the case of the ss. "Calchas" was as indicated in the question. The contingency apprehended in the latter part of the question might certainly arise.