irrational numbers there is P. Bachmann’s Vorlesungen über die
Natur der Irrationalzahnen (1892). For the application of continued
fractions to the theory of lenses, see R. S. Heath’s Geometrical Optics,
chaps. iv. and v. For an exhaustive summary of all that has been
written on the subject the reader may consult Bd. 1 of the Encyklopädie
der mathematischen Wissenschaften (Leipzig). (A. E. J.)
CONTOUR, CONTOUR-LINE (a French word meaning generally
“outline,” from the Med. Lat. contornare, to round off), in physical
geography a line drawn upon a map through all the points upon
the surface represented that are of equal height above sea-level.
These points lie, therefore, upon a horizontal plane at a given
elevation passing through the land shown on the map, and the
contour-line is the intersection of that horizontal plane with
the surface of the ground. The contour-line of 0, or datum level,
is the coastal boundary of any land form. If the sea be imagined
as rising 100 ft., a new coast-line, with bays and estuaries indented
in the valleys, would appear at the new sea-level. If the sea
sank once more to its former level, the 100–ft. contour-line with
all its irregularities would be represented by the beach mark
made by the sea when 100 ft. higher. If instead of receding the
sea rose continuously at the rate of 100 ft. per day, a series of
levels 100 ft. above one another would be marked daily upon the
land until at last the highest mountain peaks appeared as islands
less than 100 ft. high. A record of this series of advances
marked upon a flat map of the original country would give a
series of concentric contour-lines narrowing towards the mountain-tops,
which they would at last completely surround. Contour-lines
of this character are marked upon most modern maps
of small areas and upon all government survey and military maps
at varying intervals according to the scale of the map.
CONTRABAND (Fr. contrebande, from contra, against, and
bannum, Low Lat. for “proclamation”), a term given generally
to illegal traffic; and particularly, as “contraband of war,”
to goods, &c., which subjects of neutral states are forbidden by
international law to supply to a belligerent.
According to current practice contraband of war is of two kinds: (1) absolute or unconditional contraband, i.e. materials of direct application in naval or military armaments; and (2) conditional contraband, consisting of articles which are fit for, but not necessarily of direct application to, hostile uses. There is much difference of opinion among international jurists and states, however, as to the specific materials and articles which may rightfully be declared by belligerents to belong to either class. There is also disagreement as to the belligerent right where the immediate destination is a neutral but the ultimate an enemy port.
An attempt was made at the Second Hague Conference to come to an agreement on the chief points of difference. The British delegates were instructed even to abandon the principle of contraband of war altogether, subject only to the exclusion by blockade of neutral trade from enemy ports. In the alternative they were to do their utmost to restrict the definition of contraband within the narrowest possible limits, and to obtain exemption of food-stuffs destined for places other than beleaguered fortresses and of raw materials required for peaceful industry. Though the discussions at the conference did not result in any convention, except on the subject of mails, it was agreed among the leading maritime states that an early attempt should be made to codify the law of naval war generally, in connexion with the establishment of an international prize court (see Prize).
Meanwhile, on the subject of mails, important articles were adopted which figure in the “Convention on restrictions in the right of capture” (No. 11 of the series Mails. as set out in the General Act, see Peace Conference). They are as follows:—
Art. I.—The postal correspondence of neutrals or belligerents, whatever its official or private character may be, found on the high seas on board a neutral or enemy ship is inviolable. If the ship is detained, the correspondence is forwarded by the captor with the least possible delay.
The provisions of the preceding paragraph do not apply, in case of violation of blockade, to correspondence destined for, or proceeding from, a blockaded port.
Art. II.—The inviolability of postal correspondence does not exempt a neutral mail ship from the laws and customs of maritime war as to neutral merchant ships in general. The ship, however, may not be searched except when absolutely necessary, and then only with as much consideration and expedition as possible.
As regards food-stuffs Great Britain has long and consistently held that provisions and liquors fit for the consumption of the enemy’s naval or military forces are contraband. Her Prize Act, however, provides a palliative, in the Food-stuffs and pre-emption. case of “naval or victualling stores,” for the penalty attaching to absolute contraband, the lords of the admiralty being entitled to exercise a right of pre-emption over such stores, i.e. to purchase them without condemnation in a prize court. In practice, purchases are made at the market value of the goods, with an additional 10% for loss of profit.
On the continent of Europe no such palliative has yet been adopted; but moved by the same desire to distinguish unmistakable from, so to speak, constructive contraband, and to protect trade against the vexation of uncertainty, many continental jurists have come to argue conditional contraband away altogether. This change of opinion has especially manifested itself in the discussions on the subject in the Institute of International Law, a body composed exclusively of recognized international jurists. The rules this body adopted in 1896, though they do not represent the unanimous feeling of its members, may be taken as the view of a large proportion of them. The majority comprised German, Danish, Italian, Dutch and French specialists. The rules adopted contain a clause, which, after declaring conditional contraband abolished, states that: “Nevertheless the belligerent has, at his option and on condition of paying an equitable indemnity, a right of sequestration or pre-emption as to articles (objets) which, on their way to a port of the enemy, may serve equally in war or in peace.” This rule, it is seen, is of wider application than the above-mentioned provision of the British Prize Act. To become binding in its existing form, either an alteration of the text of the Declaration of Paris or a modification in the wording of the clause would be necessary, seeing that under the Declaration of Paris “the neutral flag covers enemy goods, except contraband of war.” It may be said that, in so far as the continent is concerned, expert opinion is, on the whole, favourable to the recognition of conditional contraband in the form of a right of sequestration or pre-emption and within the limits Great Britain has shown a disposition to set to it as against herself.
As regards coal there is no essential difference between the position of coal to feed ships and that of provisions to feed men. Neither is per se contraband. At the West African Conference in 1884 the Russian representative protested Coal. against its inclusion among contraband articles, but the Russian government included it in their declaration as to contraband on the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. In 1898 the British foreign office replied to an inquiry of the Newport Chamber of Commerce on the position of coal that: “Whether in any particular case coal is or is not contraband of war, is a matter prima facie for the determination of the Prize Court of the captor’s nationality, and so long as such decision, when given, does not conflict with well-established principles of international law, H.M.’s government will not be prepared to take exception thereto.” The practical applications of the law and usage of contraband in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5, however, brought out vividly the need of reform in these “well-established principles.”
The Japanese regulations gave rise to no serious difficulties. Those issued by Russia, on the other hand, led to much controversy between the British government and that of Russia, in connexion with the latter’s Controversy with Russia in Russo-Japanese War. pretension to class coal, rice, provisions, forage, horses and cotton with arms, ammunition, explosives, &c., as absolute contraband. On June 1, 1904, Lord Lansdowne expressed the surprise with which the British government learnt that rice and provisions were to be treated as unconditionally contraband—“a step which they regarded as inconsistent with
