PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
FETC.O. 885
بيليبي
24 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRA H-NOT TO
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a charter (either time or voyage) for a fixed sum, the hirer taking all the expenses, but before any action could be taken in this direction it was absolutely essential to find out particulars about the cargo and to ascertain what proportion of the freight had been paid in advance. The owners of that part of the cargo on which freight had been paid in advance would, if they wished their goods to be carried on, have to pay freight for them again. This would apparently be a hardship on them, but the alternative would be to land them and let the owners send them on This to another ship, unless the Crown was willing to grant them free passage. would depend upon whether the balance of freight recoverable was sufficient to pay for the expenses. If it was not, there should be a general average charge to
cover the excess.
The first action to be taken in the matter would be for the Foreign Office to call for information:
As to the manifests;
(b) As to the persons whom the Chamber of Commerce represented in
making their application to take over the charge of the ships. Mr. Malkin raised two farther questions in connexion with these ships:
(1) In the event of the contract being made with a firm to take over the ships, by whom was a contract on behalf of His Majesty's Government to be made?
(2) Who was to collect the necessary information with regard to the ships
in question?
In discussing the first of these points, the Committee decided to make the following recommendation :-
In view of there being so many complicated questions to be dealt with from a legal point of view, the Committee consider it essential that assistance should be obtained from the Treasury Solicitor, or, failing him, from some firm of solicitors accustomed to shipping work.
It was suggested that the cost of employing a solicitor could be met from the charges to be recovered from the cargo owners or charterers.
Mr. Tennyson informed the Committee that Messrs. Waltons & Company, who are retained by the Crown Agents for the Colonies in shipping matters, had been assisting the Colonial Office in the cases which were already under consideration.
The Committee thought that in all cases where a contract required to be made the contract should be made on behalf of the Admiralty. The Admiralty seemed to be the proper department to represent the Crown, in view of the fact that the It would probably be ships would have to be requisitioned by that department. necessary that the Admiralty should have an agreement, both with the charterers and with the cargo owners, unless the charterers gave a guarantee of indemnity, in which case only one agreement might be necessary.
The Committee thought that the collection of information should be under- taken in each case by the department concerned in the administration of the territory where the ship in question was detained-in this case the Foreign Office.
At this point the Chairman remarked that he thought it desirable that the Committee should consider the general principles governing their proceedings. Individual applications would, of course, be brought before the Committee by the Colonial Office, Foreign Office, or India Office, as the case might be, and if the Committee agreed that the case should be proceeded with, the department con- It should, however, be cerned could then take such action as might be necessary. left to the persons interested to make application in individual cases, and it was not necessary that the Committee should take the initiative. Should questions of principle not covered by their instructions arise, the Committee could make a recommendation to the proper quarter.
As regards ships for sale, the Committee agreed that the general principle which should be observed should be that each ship should be finally disposed of as speedily as possible, and, if necessary, brought home for disposal. There were strong reasons against holding up ships after they had once been condemned by a Prize Court, since there would be various liabilities to provide against, all of At the present moment, there which would have to fall upon the Prize Fund.
would be no difficulty in disposing of ships, as the demand was good, but, of course, advice would have to be taken as to the moment of sale in individual cases,
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As regards ships entitled to the benefit of The Hague Convention VI of 1907, they should be brought into use as, and when, required, with due regard to all the interests involved. With these ships, as in the case of ships for sale, it was important that they should not be kept in port, if the Prize Fund was not to be depleted by various charges which would fall upon it.
The Committee then discussed the question of the Prize Fund generally. The following questions required to be settled:-
(1) What is the Prize Fund?
(2) Who are to participate in the Prize Fund?
(3) In what proportion is the Prize Fund to be divided between the
Imperial and the Dominion Navies?
The following considerations arise with regard to these points :-
If the Prize Fund is divided into separate funds,
(a) Each fund will be affected according to the locality in which a
particular ship is condemned.
(b) It will be a difficult matter to determine out of what funds the grants, by way of compensation for these classes of equitable claims now under the consideration of the Attorney General's Committee, should be met in Oversea cases.
(e) The consent of the Colonial Governments may be required in many
cases.
If there is a single Prize Fund,
(a) It will be an easier matter to regulate appeals from Prize Courts.
(b) Payments into Court can be made in the United Kingdom in oversea
cases which will save trouble and expense.
(c) It will be possible to give security in the United Kingdom in respect
of cases heard in Colonial Courts.
(4) What charges are to fall upon the Prize Fund?
(5) A subsidiary question arises as to what should be done with detained
ships in Colonies where no Prize Court has been constituted.
Some or all of these questions might be dealt with in any amending Bill which might be introduced to extend the jurisdictions of the oversea courts.
The Committee thought that it was very important that the constitution of the Prize Fund should be settled as early as possible, as any expenses incurred or losses of ships arising out of accidents, etc., must fall upon the fund. It was also necessary to consider whether any expenses should be incurred at all upon the maintenance of detained ships, but, in any case, the recommendations of the Com- mittee must necessarily depend upon the nature of the Prize Fund, or other fund on which the charges are to fall. Mr. Tennyson also mentioned a question which had arisen in some of the Colonies in regard to payment of fees to the officials of the Courts. In some of the Colonies, officials were still paid by fees. The question of fees would also arise as regards sales of ships. Should a sale be effected in this country, the ad valorem fees might have to be remitted to the local Court.
Mr. Tennyson undertook to make out a list of all the prize ships at the present moment detained in all Colonial ports.
The Chairman suggested that the following matters should be considered at the next meeting of the Committee:-
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(1) In troving ships from one port to another, should the procedure be by
way
of requisition as hitherto or by obtaining an amending Act to make Prize Courts throughout the British Dominions one Court? (2) What charges incidental to the work under consideration in each case should fall upon the Prize Fund? If not upon the Prize Fund, how should the charges be met?
(3) How can funds be provided for dealing with the upkeep and general
expenditure incurred in connexion with detained ships?
In the meantime the Colonial Office might continue to deal with the cases actually under consideration on the assumption that no profit was to be made on the freight for the Prize Fund.
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