SHIPBOARD ARRESTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 26, 13 January 1912, Page 3

SHIPBOARD ARRESTS.

An interesting point of. maritime law is at present forming the subject of dispute between the Norddcutscher Lloyd, on the one hand,; and the German Foreign Office and tho Bremen Senate on tho other. The question arises out of the use which has been frequently made of wireless telegraphy by the German police authorities to effect the arrest on the high seas of passengers who are known or thought to be on board German vessels, and for whose apprehension a warrant has been issued. The Norddcutscher Lloyd bolds the view that tho captain of a steamship is not an official of the public prosecutor’s department “within tho meaning of the Act,” and is not therefore armed with the necessary authority to place any of his passengers under arrest unless it he for some offence committed on board.

The company has taken tho opinion of an authority on international law, and in order to protect its captains from actions for damages arising out of illegal arrests or detention it has issued instructions that they are not to placo any of their passengers under detention when ordered to do so by wireless. The German Foreign Office, however, and the Department of Justice, are of the opposite opinion. They hold that on general considerations a captain should carry out his instructions when he is ordered by a State Department or official to place under arrest one of bis passengers who may he “wanted” by the law. The Foreign Office has accordingly requested the Bremen Senate to convey this view to all the shipping companies in Bremen, and to see that appropriate instructions are issued to their captains. The Norddeutscher Lloyd, however, refuses for the present to alter its attitude in tho matter.