MERCHANT SHIPPING.

Press, Volume L, Issue 15040, 7 August 1914, Page 11

MERCHANT SHIPPING.

/ A PERIOD OF GRACE,

:} \- (fbxss assocution-

.';* Wellington; August 6. t ' "Gazette" extraordinary has,'been • issued which contains ah Qrder-in-Oonncil for .granting days of grace ■" to the enemy's merchant ships -.juadsr; the Haguo Convention of It states that in the event .-,.0f satisfactory evidence being rer '/-cdved by midnight on Friday that £. .British ihips.in foreign ports, are well tf».treated, ships will bo allowed till midL' ■" night- on tbo fourteenth, to load or un'cargoes and depart. The privilege * • does not apply to vessels whose tonnage ...exceeds fire thousand tons, or to cable ;;ifijps or ships whose speed exceedsCl4 \_ knots, those being liable for adjudica- . "tipn in'thje Prize Court. Enemy mer-v-ichant ships allowed to depart will be £ provided with a pass indicating the port ,v, t«j which they aro to proceed, and the \** r Wte,-th'ey are to folldw. A merchant .-. Klup whicii, ait&r receipt of such pass, 1 ii? 66 not ow the courje indicated, will be liable to capture. If no in- '» :ormation reaches one of his Majesty's - -_pnpapal Secretaries of State by the - uma the aforetime mentioned to the ?, tho treatment accorded ,-■, wash merchant ships and tiheir car--s**, which were in ports of an enemy g«Je date of. the outbreak ofhostih- •' °? which subsequently entered ] • la, , 3s ' ' m his opinion, not less favourj, -f«le than that accorded to enemy mer- \ :, Z2* i >* bll &> hy the ariicles of this order, :* ™cry enemy merchant ship which, on a toe outbreak of hostilities, was in any g Port to which tho order applies, also 8j ?*■**? «nemy merchant ship which onher last port before the de|£c»rai"on of war, but which, with no

knowledge of war, enters' a; port to which the order applies, shall;-together with i her: cargo. -oo liable to capture, and* shall bo'brought before-the'Court forthwith for adjudication. ■ -.' ,', .

MR MASSEY'S MESSAGES. OVER- ■ •":• SEA. ■•-••' C v■■