ENEMY SHIPS TO LEAVE THE SUEZ-CANAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15748, 24 October 1914, Page 7

ENEMY SHIPS TO LEAVE THE SUEZ-CANAL .

NOT FOE USE INDEFINITELY AS .SANCTUARY. BRITISH GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS EGYPT'S ACTION. Wellington, October 23. The Prime Minister has received the following cablegram from the High Commissioner, dated London, October 22:—The Government has issued a notification in the following terms to representatives of foreign maritime Powers: "Since the outbreak of the war certain ships of enemy countries have remained in the Suez Canal. Some of these vessels were detained by the Egyptian Government on account of hostile acts committed in the canal, some because there was reason to apprehend they only contemplated hostile acts. Others though perfectly free, refused to leave the canal in spite of an offer of a free pass, thus disclosing an intention to use the ports of the canal merely, as ports of refuge. The British Government do not admit that the conventional right of free access to, and the use of the canal enjoyed by merchant vessels, implies the right to make use of the -• canal and its ports of access for an indefinite time to escape capture,, since it is obvious that the result of permitting such a course must, incommode and block the use of the ports and the canal by other ships. * — - •".?: ~:;:r----"The British Government is consequently of the opinion' that the Egyptian Government is fully justified in the steps, taken -to . remove from the canal all enemy ships which have been long enough in the canal and ports to show clearly that they, hare no intention of departing in the ordinary wag." ."."■-- '~,'-" /, '"'' ,: i ■'" ' h '■■•■■••. ; ■ ■.:•---.:-•: ■.- ■ .