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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, MAY 19, 1916.
No. 215. The following notice which appeared in the London Gazette of the 17th March, 1916, is published for general information.
FOREIGN OFFICE,
March 15, 1916.
ITALIAN DECREES RELATIVE TO ENEMY MERCHANT VESSELS.
According to a notification received from His Majesty's Ambassador at Rome the Italian Government have by a Decree dated February 10th, 1916, amended Article I of the Decree (No. 1014) of June 24th, 1915, which provides (Article 2) for the confiscation of enemy merchant vessels by way of reprisal for certain hostile acts. A translation of the latter Decree was published in Parliamentary Paper Miscellaneous No. 18 (1915).
The text of Article 1 as thus amended is as follows (translation) :
Article 1. If the enemy causes damage to the lives or goods of Italian subjects or citizens by bombarding undefended towns, ports, villages, houses, or other buildings, by destroying merchantmen unarmed *or armed for defence in accordance with the provisions of Article 109 of the Mercantile Marine Code, or by committing any hostile acts which are contrary to the principles of the rights of war generally recognised and admitted, the Government of the King are authorised to order the appropriation of the sum required to indemnify Italian subjects or citizens, or their represen- tatives, who have suffered damage from the enemy, from the fund which has been established by the Caisse of Deposits for seamen in the mari- time department of Genoa in accordance with the terms of Article 6 of our Decree of the 17th June, 1915, No. 957.
No. 216. The following Order of His Majesty in Council, dated the 30th March, 1916, entitled "The Declaration of London Order in Council, 1916," modifying certain parts of the Orders in Council at present in force relative to certain provisions of the Declaration of London, is published for general information.
W
AT THE COURT AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE,
THE 30TH DAY of March, 1916.
PRESENT,
THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY IN COUNCIL.
HEREAS by the Declaration of London Order in Council No. 2, 1914, His Majesty was pleased to direct that during the present hostilities the provisions of the Convention known as the Declaration of London should, subject to certain omissious and modifications therein set out, be adopted and put in force by His Majesty's Government; and
Whereas doubts have arisen as to the effect of Article 1 (iii) of the said Order in Council on the right to effect the capture of conditional contraband on board a vessel bound for a neutral port; and
Whereas it is expedient to put an end to such doubts and otherwise to amend the said Order in Council in the manner hereinafter appearing; and
* The words in italics are added by the Decree of February 10th, 1916.