CONTRABAND BY PARCEL POST.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11763, 29 July 1916, Page 9

CONTRABAND BY PARCEL POST.

RUBBER AS INVWLAILE " CORiiESrO.iDEriCE."

The British and French Governments 'officially announced their decision recently on JgL question of the examination and detention of postal parcels found in' vessels visited on the higli seas. Enemy traffic, deprived of tho freedom of the seas, has been brought to hiding itself under the guise of "correspondence," so as to cover tho transit of all kinds ol goods, even contraband of war, through the post offices of neutral States. The two Allied Governments now declare;—

That goods sent in the form of postal parcels are not entitled to, and will not receive, other treatment than goods sent in any oilier way; that the inviolabiliy of postal correspondence, as la;d down by the Eleventh Hague Convention. in no way detracts from tho right to detain and seize goods concealed in wrappers or letters in mail bags; and that genuine "correspondence " will for the present ccirt.inuft to be forwarded as rapidly as possible to its destination, although, according to tho German Government, the Eleventh Hague Convention is not in fact operative, as it has not been ratified bv all the Powers now at war.

There is no reason why mail hags should be allowed to shelter contraband such as the following articles:— 1302 postal parcels, containing altogether 437.510 kilog. of rubber for Hamburg (steamships Tijiuca, Bahia.. Jaguaribe. xilaranhao, Acre, Olinda. Para. Braailh r,r, further, 68 post all parcels, containing 400 revolvers for Germany via Amsterdam (steamship Gelria}. Chi the arrival of tho steam ship Tubantia thore was found in her mail bags 174|1b of rubber, a commodity especially sought after by tin* enemy. Neutrals are reminded that-—-

" From December 31, 1914, to December 81, 1915, the German or AusiroHungarian naval authorities destroyed without warning or preliminary visit thirteen mail steamers, with the mail bags on board, coming from or destined to neutral or Allied countries, without troubling any more amout the inviolibility of the dispatches and correspondence they contained than about, the lives of the inoffensive persons on board those vessels "The Allied Governments are not aware that ?ny protest regarding this postal correspondence has been addressed to the Imperial Governments. "From the legal point of view the exercise of the belligerent right of policing and' examining ships on thf> high seas, and especially what is found on board, has never, to the knowledge of the Allied Governments, been quest'oned. whether as regard nail brier, e' as regards onv other cargo: furthermore, up to 1907 letters and dispatches wore themselves subject to seizure and confiscation."