The Alaska citizen., 1917-03-12
BRITISH WILL
 BE GIVEN THE.
 FAMOUS APPAM

decision sustaining that ol the lower courts and ordering tine famous pr.ze ship Appam. which was brought into Newport News moro than year as" by a German prze crew. turned JNsI ID the former owners, the Brit ish > Afr can Steamship Co
 Story of the Case.
 iuterpre. tion. for the first time. ay the Sup'eme court of the treaties D. l,39 an. 1928 between the United States anu Germany was sought in TWO cases determining possession of the Eritie liner Appam. captured January T., 1916. by the German raider Mo.Ee and taken to Newport News. Va. by prize crew under Lieutenant Hans Berg.
 Almost -om the moment that the lin pass q into Hampton Roads February 1916. after d trans-At Hndc das of 3,051 miles, the legal contest f0 possession of ship and ,argo beg n. Together their value is estimated at between $3,0OO.OOO and sf,0Q 000, constituting one of the richest single prizes of the war
 Right tc asylum in American Wa ters until the war ends. or failing that, to hd. Q disposition of the vessel and cargo determined by the state department and German government, was claimsd by the German captors
 in an admiralty suit. attaching the Appam ari her cargo, the British & African Steamship company, British owners, ught repossession. They denied thaf German-American treaties or lnJern ional law gave the Ger man claimants authority to retain the prize.
 The GeEnan government, claiming he Appa as a public ship of war belonging by its capture to the gov ernment vas the real defendant in he lDel suit, although Lieutenant Berg, pri2s master, and German Vice Consul yoa Schilling of Norfolk, Va, were the nominal claimants. The British owners were success ..l n th= lower court. Return of vessel and cargo was ordered in l J ilE 1JIh, DS tutld ltlSlIICI J uuS6 Waddill o Virginia The manner of bringing he Appam into United States w,ters Judge Waddill held as q violation of American neutrality. | He inter- rrted the German American treaties to give no permanent, but only d temporary, right to American asylum to German war prizes | Upon appeal to the supreme court. bond for $2,00O,00O was given by i the German claimants to retain pos session, under supervision of Virginia court off .4ls. Receipts of $634, 900 i from Cou sale of perishable cargo 1 have been held by the lower court awaiting he supreme courts final decision
 That no attempt would be made to run the Appam out of American jurisdiction pending the appeal was i formally pledged to the state de i partment by former German Ambas- sador yor Bernstorff, and the prize
 crew remained aboard at Newport l News. III British persons aboard
 were promptly released by order ot i Secretary Lansing.
 The thee principal grounds relied upon by inc German claimants were:
 l. That the Appam, as public
 ship oi var belonging by capture to i the German government, is entitled
 to indefinite American asylum under Article r. of the 1799 treaty between
 the United States and Prussia, re-
 neWed in part by Article 12 of the ! German-AneriCan treaty of 1923
 2. That American courts are with
 out jurisdiction, enjoyed solely by l German p-ize courts
 3. That the American and German 1 gOVenments- American admiral 1 ty courts must determine the Alp pans disposition.
 All three principal and other minor ! contentious were rejected by Judge | Waddill. He construed the treaties l to grant only temporary asylum to Warships not to prizes unaCcom- | panied by captor warships. That the ! Appam, having violated United States neutrality, must be treated as aban- doned and stranded upon our shores and the British owners therefore Zen 1 titled to restitution of their proper ty" was his decision.
 The American government inter- Vened in the proceedings, but only as friend of the court.
 The state department had ruled i that it's construction of the treaties does not give Germany the right to l deposit spells of war in an Ameri- ] can port and that they gave the Appam the right to enter American i waters "only in case of stress of weather, want of fuel or provisions, or necessity for repairs" and oblig- l ed departure "as soon as such cause
 was removed"
 1 However. in note to British Am i bassador SpringRice, Secretary Lan- sing said he was unable to accept" the British envoy's suggestion that
 the Appam violated American neu- 1 trality.
 Failure of President Wilson's vari- GUS neutrality proclamations to in- terGiGt bringing of prizes to the United States ports was also relied upon bV the German claimants