The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1915-08-21
TO MAKE co., IcoNTRABAMD
UNOFFICI, q cut AUTHORITA-
TIVE \ : NcEMENT MADE
" WASHINGTON.
Dcla' hblic Announcements Due to
Ncce. dy of Arranging Uniform
Treatment by All Countries Involv-
ed-Unitcd States Prepared TO Re-
Sist Change i'm Status.

Washington, Aug. 16.-The allies
intention to declare cotton contraband
has been communicated unofficially
but authoritatively to the state de-
partmcnt The departments advices
are that the decision had been reach
ed and the delay in making an an
nouncement is due to the necessity of
arranging uniform treatment by all Of
the allies.
The step has been agreed upon by
Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy
and Belgium, but Japans attitude has
not been defined and she amy decide
that no action is called for from her
at this time, because of the elimina-
ton of the only German colony in
the Far East from the military prob
lem and the absence of any reason for
a blockade.
Ever since the application of the
British orders in council to cotton,
among other American products, the
entente allies have felt that some
more effective and less burdensome
method must be found for dealing
with cotton and preventing it's entry
into Germany and Austria. The allies
contend that American shippers, in
lmany cases, alleged to be backed by
German capital, have been shipping
cotton to Germany through neutral
lports.
| Under the orders in council such
cargo, if captured, merely was
taken into British port and paid
for by the British government. The
allies contend that under these con-
ditions great deal of the cotton got
through Sweden, Denmark and Hol-
land into Germany. From the allies
point of view the orders in council
were ineffective because they obliged
the British government to buy cotton
and at the same time offered an in
centive to blockade runners.
According to the advices reaching
and France has compelled a change.
The British government originally re-
igarded cotton as non-contra band and
expressed a desire to avoid infiicting
hardship upon Southern planters and
to avoid development of anti-British
feeling in this country.
oh 10 ~
defended as authorized by interna-
tional law. Great Britain protested
against the American blockade Of out
going cotton from the South during the
War of Secession and had refused to
recognize it as contraband during the
Russo-Japanese war; but will now
contend that radical changes in the
conditions of warfare since that time
justify change in attitude.
The entente powers, according to
,advices here, expect that the state
department will resist making cotton
contraband and are preparing to base
their action on American precedents.
|
they intend to argue that both Pres
idents. Lincoln and johnson, in formal
tproclamations issued in April, May
and June, 1865, went on record as
maintaining as contraband of war
materials for the fabrication of am
lmunition."
hnC tnly
lsaltpetre, always recognized as abso-
Lutte contraband, in the manufacture
of gunpowder, will be held to be an
established fact. By way of convinc-
ing the state department to that eff
feet, attention probably will be di-
rected TO letter by Secretary Hay to
wv. w. Rockhill, American minister to
China, during the Russo-Japanese
war, stating that the American ord
nance officers, whom he had called
into consultation regarding the Jap
anese blockade orders, had advised
him that cotton was used in the man.
utacture of smokeless powder and SO
must properly be regarded as contra
band of war
1t is expected that some sort of an
arrangement will be proposed by
which the allies will engage to allow
cotton to travel unmolested to nell
tral countries in quantities in propor-
ton to their normal consumption.
what the effect will be on the Amer
lean cotton growers is the subject of
contention. The allied powers are
prepared To argue that it will not be
far-roaChing.
The cotton interests have for some
time been alarmed at the prospect and
1T is known that the state department