SHIPS CAPTURED IN WAR-TIME

Southland Times, Issue 23932, 26 September 1939, Page 9

SHIPS CAPTURED IN WAR-TIME

VESSELS SUBMITTED TO PRIZE COURT ADMINISTRATION OF LAW The fair and impartial manner in which Great Britain administered the Law of Prize during the Great War was commented upon by Mr J. Stanton, Auckland, city solicitor, when discussing the fate of ships captured dur--ing wartime, in an address to members of the Auckland Creditmen’s Club. There was a big attendance, over which Mr R. S. Abel presided. Mr Stanton said the Law of Prize was administered by a Prize Court which sat during wartime only. In England, such a Court had not-been in session from the time of the Crimean War until the Great War, and again since just after the Great War until the present time. It differed from other Courts, in that appeals were not to the House of Lords, but to the Privy Council. t The capture of a ship during war did not mean that the ship and its cargo automatically became the property of the nation which made the capture, Mr Stanton said. It was the duty of the successful captain to take the prize to. his own country and submit it to the Prize Court. If reasonable grounds for the capture were not shown, the owners of the ship and the cargo could claim heavy damages.

In dealing with enemy ships, the Prize Court, was not confronted with any great difficulties. Certain vessels such as hospital ships were exempt from capture, although in the Great War Germany sank eight in the Mediterranean, and used her own hospital ships for fighting purposes. A mass of intricacies arose where neutral ships were concerned, among which was the difficulty of determining what goods should be regarded as contraband or useful for the enemy’s war purposes. As in the present war, belligerent countries generally published lists of goods which they would regard in this category.

The usual British principle that a man is believed innocent until his guilt is proved did not apply to the Prize Court, Mr Stanton said. The reverse was the case, the onus being on the owners of ships and cargoes to prove their innocence in trade with the enemy. Proceeds from the capture of ships and cargoes were paid into a Naval Prize Fund and distributed among the personnel of the naval forces engaged in the capture.