QUEER PRIZES OF WAR.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 15269, 4 May 1915, Page 8

QUEER PRIZES OF WAR.

WHAT THE ENGLISH COURT HAS TO DEAL WITH. A VENERABLE INSTITUTION. (l-tOU J CORRESrOKDENT.) LONDON, March 19. For the first time in nearly sixty years, or since the war of tbo Crimea, a Prize Court has been sitting in London. This Prize Court, which 6its in the Admiralty* Division of the Royal Courts of Justice, in the Strand, and of which the Rt. Hon. Sir Samuel Evans is President, has been holding sessions ever since September, or since shortly after the beginning of tho war, and in this time it has had to deal with over 800 cargoes, including, _o one of the Admiralty oflicials told the writer ' yesterday, practically every known variety carried in ships. They have included such odd shipments as buffalo horn, human hair (this from China), German toys, including several hundred Jack-in-the-boxes, jewellery, cinematograph films, mussel-shells from Malay (these latter, it s eoms, are ground up to mako food for fowls), and there was also ono cargo of trick ponies, and one composed of frogs and alligators! These reptiles, captured in the region of tho River Plate, in South America, were on their way to Hagenbcck's Zoo, in Hamburg, and wncn they came into the custody of tho ----- mir'alty officials, were in a lamentable state from hunger and thirst. --*c frogs, which numbered some hundreds, were, so the official who went on board to welcome them to England reported, gasping. The-alligators, which totalled fifteen, were, on tho other hand, simply boiling with' rage at being obliged to undergo an involuntary hunger and thirst strike. Some of them managed to get loose and went for the Admiralty men, and there was no end of a shindy, with several men "treed" up the nearest mast, until, in the end, an animal dealer learned in the ways of 'gators, responded to the "5.0.5." message, and, aided, by several stalwart and perspiring assistants, succeeded in putting the reptiles in irons. This affair, by the way, followed close upon another lively time with the trick ponies, which were travelling from Germany to Buenos Ayres, and which, when landed at the Port of London docks, stampeded, one man being kiek*ed so hard, in the mix-up that followed, that he -had to be taken, to hospital, and is not. out yet. Naturally enough, the Admiralty folk were eager to be quit, not only of -he fractious ponies, but of the frogs and alligators, too. The frogs were put up at auction, and sold to a dealer in frogs for £50, while the alligators were knocked down, at a bargain rate, to a well-known English showman, who is now exhibiting them in a tent, throughout the country. "Great Exhibition of Prisoners of War," the show is called, I understand, and the rustics are not allowed to become aware, until, having paid their sixpences to get in, they discover it for themselves, that the "prisoners of war" are only a lot of intensely cross alligators. This High Court of Admiralty, to give the department of his Majesty's Law Courts of which we are speaking, ita proper title, possesses ono official which no other British tribunal can boast, namely, a Marshal, whose origin, it seems, w wrapt in mystery, but who wears adistinctive uniform—consisting of a cocked hat and a sort of glorified dressfuit—and who has a really novel symbol off office. This is an oar, made of solid silver, about two feet long and weighing 141b, and covered with beautiful raised work. It dates back, so they say, to the time of Edward 111., and, among many other effigies, it shows the arms of England upheld, not by the lion and unicorn, but by what looks like a dragon and a dogOriginally it bore, too, a beautifully raised crown, but when tho oar fell, as it. did, ihto the hands of Oliver Cromwell, he promptly ordered the crown to be erased, and so it was, and, . after the Restoration, when they wanted to put the crown on again, it was necessary to engrave it on tho space left blank, and this was done rather crudely, as I-noted yesterday, when I was permitted to examine tlio oar and to "heft" it. When all is ready for a sitting of the Prize Court, the quaint Marshal, whose namo is Lovell, clad in his uniform and bearing his silver oar, solemnly places himself in front of the President and slowly and reverently precedes him into the court room. The walls of this room" are oak panelled and it is lighted by two old-fashioned chandeliers; there are portly law-books galore, a whole row of them at* the President's right hand, and tbe learned judge, the learned counsel and the learned clerks, all keep un the illusion of antiquity by writing with quill pens. So tho President takes his seat, under a gilt anchor and high above everybody else in -the court, the silver oar is laid in front of him, and so we aro all ready for business, if you please, and an . oddly impressive sight it all is to be sure. The owners of cargoes seized in neutral ships get a square deal from Sir Samuel Evans, who. by the way, has no jury nor any other "learned bre--thren" to assist him in his decisions,, and the only appeal from whose ruling is to the Privy 'Council. When I visited the Prize Court on Monday last, for example, he ruled, in direct opposition to the interests of Great Britain, and in opposition to the pleading of the Attorney-General, who aoneared for the Crown, that the British Government had no right to take possessionj as it had done with the intention of turning them into munitions of war. of five shmment-. of copper, consigned from the United State-*, to Norway and Sweden. The plaintiff was the Swedish owner of one of the cargoes, who had, of course, been offered compensation' by the British Government, and be was represented by a well-known K.C. The - Attorney-General pleaded that if the ronper "went to Sweden even for the making of domestic utensils, thero was nothing to prevent that copper finding its wav to the German enemy in tho form of pots and nans, but tho President decided that it was impossible for the Crown to requisition a cargo which wps neutral property, and so the ca-» ended. As President of the H'-rh Court of Admiralty, by the way, Sir S'tmuol is ihe custodian of what is undoubtedly one of tbe quaintest and most interesting old books in existence. Dating back like tl-o silver onr, to the rei<m of E.Tward 111., it is known as "Tho Black Book of the Admiralty." and is the oldest compilation of maritime law in existence. Amonc- other things, ft contains a list of oenalt'e-** for wrongdoing at -"(-a, r»ud, remembering the spirit of thos*» time-*, you will not be surprised to hear that most of these are what one micht term somewhat drastic. '•Nose-slittin*-'" was a favourite pitnichment, whi'o a captain who intentional'}" ran hi- sbin aground should, it was writte - . h*-vo bis throat slit and bis toncnie nol'e'l flown through the opening thus provided.