New Britain herald., 1915-01-11

fighting from hitherto accepted rules of civilization and humanity, and the uncertainty as to the extent to which such rules may be violated by them in future.
 In Prize Courts
 Prom the fourth of August last to the third of January the number of stea mships proceeding from the United States for Holland. Denmark. Sweden and Italy has been seven hundred and seventy-three. Of these there are forty-five which have had consignments or cargoes placed in the prize court, while of the ships them selves only eight have been placed in the prize court and one of these has since been released. It is, however, essential under modern conditions that where there is real ground for sus- pecting tho presence of contraband, the vessels should be brought into court for examination In no other way can the right of search be eNer- cised, and but for this practice it would have to be completely aban- GCned
 Information was received by us that special instructions had been given to ship rubber from the United States under another designation to escape notice, and such cases have occurred in several instances. Only by search in a port can such cases, when suspected, be discovered and proved.
 Need For Port Examination.
 Necessity for examination in port may be also illustrated by Hypothetical instance connected with cotton which has not yet occurred. Cotton is not specifically mentioned in your excellencys note, but l have seen public statements made in the. United States that the attitude of his majesty's government with regard to cotton has been ambiguous and there by responsible for depression in the cotton trade.
 There has never been any foun- dation for this allegation. His maj esty's government has never put cotton on the list of contraband; they have throughout the war kept it on the free list; and on every oc casion when questioned on the point, they have stated their intention of adhering to this practice. But in- formation has reached us that pre- Cisely because we have declared our intention of not interfering with cot ton, ships carrying cotton will be specially selected to carry concealed contraband; and we have been warned that copper will be concealed in bales of cotton. Whatever suspi- cions we have entertained, we have not so far made these a ground for detaining any ship carrying cotton; but should VIC have information giv- ing us real reason to believe in the case of a particular ship that the bales of cotton concealed copper or other contraban tho only way to prove our case would be to examine them and weigh the bales; a process that could be carried out only by bringing the vessel into a port. In such a case. or if examination iusti- fled the action of his majesty's gov crnment the case shall he brought before a prize court and dealt with in the ordinary way.
 Decisions Of Courts.
 That the decisions of British prize courts hitherto have not been unfavorable to neutrals is evidenced by the decision in the Miramichi case. This case, which was decided against the crown, laid down that the American shipper was to be paid even when he had sold cargo c. l. F., and when the risk of loss after the cargo had been shipped did not apply to him at all.
 Tt has further been represented to his majesty's government, though thls subject is not dealt with in your excellency's note, that our embargoes on the export of some articles, more especially rubber, have interfercd with commercial interests in the United States. It is. of course, diff ffcult for his majestys government to permit the export of rubber from