ENEMY SHIPS DETAINED IN WAR

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2249, 8 September 1914, Page 7

ENEMY SHIPS DETAINED IN WAR

NO CHARGE AGAINST THEM FOR TRANSHIPMENTS. In a letter replying to a question fiom the Wellington Chamberi of Commerce —read at the meeting of that body' yesterday—the Minister of Customs (Hon. F. M. B. Fisher) stated that the question of making the cost of transhipments of .New Zealand consigned goods_ on board German ships' held ana detained by the Commonwealth Government a chargo upon the proceeds of the condemnation and sale of these ships by the Australian Prize Courts had been referred,to the Crown Law Office for advice as to. the, legal position. . "I have to advise you," continued tho Minister, "that it is not possible to make transhipment charges a charge against the foreign vessels detained. Such ships aro not liable to condemnation and sale, but merely to detention, snd must be restored to Germany on ihe termination of tho war. Article 2 of tho Hague Convention, 1907, profides that where an enemy merclinnt>hip is, at the commencement of hostilities, in a British port, or has left its last port - before tho commencement of the war and enters a British port in ignorance of hostilities, such ship may not be confiscated, but may only' be detained under an obligation of restoring it after tho v.ar without indemnity. The ships in question no doubt camo within the terms of this article, which tho Government is bound to observe." .The chamber decided to refer tho matter to the Government again, asking if the New Zealand importers could bo guarded against loss thtrough it being made a condition of the restora- 1 tion of the vessel that her owners should pay tho cost of transhipment of goods to New Zealand. Chinese boy scouts, in smart uniforms, took part in layiiiK tho founda-tion-stone of the first building for junior Y.M.O.A. work at Shanghai.