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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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C.O.885/25

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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MINUTES.

25. Admiralty Coasting Trade Office.--The fleet of vessels hitherto employed v this 'Office has been transferred to the Ministry of Shipping as from the 1st June, and the Office is being finally closed. A final report upon the operations of the Office has been received and is being printed.

26. Tonnage for conveyance of Sleepers from Australia to South Africa.— In reply to an inquiry, Messrs. Millars Timber and Trading Company have been informed that, beyond the s.s. "Apolda" and the s.v. "Bellas" (which are already so employed), the Committee have no other vessel available which could be allotted for this service. The correspondence has been brought to the notice of the Ministry of Shipping in case that Department should be able to assist in any manner.

A request by Messrs. Millars for the use of the s.8. Apolda" for a fourteenth The terms of the charter will be the same as for voyage has been acceded to. previous voyages.

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27. Insurance of Cargoes, Alexandria.-The attention of Messrs. Glanvill, Enthoven, and Company has been called to the fact that the total value of the cargo of the s.6. "Lutzow" within the scope of the cover has exceeded the limit of £250,000. The brokers have been asked to ascertain the views of the companies as to the manner in which the premium payable to them will be adjusted in this case, and on what lines a fire loss on any cargo from this ship which may still remain subject to the cover would be met.

28. Valuation of requisitioned Vessels.—A proposal by His Majesty's Pro- curator-General that the Prize Court should be asked to value the vessels requisitioned from the Prize Court in this country, on behalf of the Committee, as at the date of requisition has been concurred in, on the understanding that the date of requisition is construed as the date of temporary requisition in any case where orders for both temporary and permanent requisition have been obtained.

29. Finances.-The monthly statements received from the Ministry of Shipping show a balance of £1,903,029 118. 3d. on the 28th February, and £1,904,398 78. 6d. on the 31st March last.

1st July, 1918

4232

CHARLES TENNYSON T. H. HOLT.

THE ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH MEETING of the Committee was held at the Colonial Office on Tuesday, the 16th of July, 1918, at 4.0 p.m.

The following members were present:

ADMIRAL SIR E. J. W. SLADE, K.C.I.E., K.C.V.O, (Chairman).

MR. W. J. EVANS, C.B.E, Admiralty.

MR. H. W. MALKIN, C.M.G., Foreign Office.

MR. C. TENNYSON, Č.M.G., Colonial Office.

MR. T. H. HOLT, O.B.E., Crown Agents.

MR. G. A. JONES acted as Secretary.

MR. E. J. STRohmenger, Sir ERNEST GLOVER, and Lieutenant J. X. MURPHY, all of the Ministry of Shipping, and MR. R. W. WOODS, C.B.E., of the Department of His Majesty's Procurator-General, also attended.

1. The minutes of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth Meeting of the Committee and the reports of the Sub-Committee, dated the 17th October, 31st December, 30th March, and 1st July last, were confirmed. In connexion with the vessels still under the control of the Committee, Mr. Holt mentioned that the question of the propriety of his action in arranging the charters of these vessels direct with the charterers, without the exployment of a broker, had been raised. Mr. Holt explained that he had followed this course when possible, from the point of view of saving the brokerage, and it was decided that he should continue to fix vessels on behalf of the Committee without the employment of a broker, in cases where it was possible for him to do so.

MINUTES.

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2. Admiralty Coasting Trade Office.-The final report upon the operations of this office was considered by the Committee, and a suggestion by Lieutenant-Colonel Leslie that a copy of the report should be sent to the Coal Controller was approved. The Secretary was directed to take the necessary action accordingly, and a letter was also to be sent to Lieutenant-Colonel Leslie, expressing the Committee's appreci- ation of the services rendered by himself and staff during the period of over three years in which the office had been in existence.

3. s.s. “Grahamland."-The reply of the British Columbia Government to the Committee's communication of the 24th October, 1916 (see paragraph 6 of the minutes of the One Hundred and Thirty-first and One Hundred and Thirty-second Meetings) was considered. It was decided that the Committee's position should be restated to the Agent-General, and an offer made that, in consideration of the Provincial Government having paid the cost of drydocking, the Committee would not press further their claim to demurrage, provided the claim to a rebate on the freight on account of the quantity of cargo carried was definitely withdrawn. It was to be made clear to the Agent-General that this offer of compromise was made with a view to disposing of matters which had been outstanding for a considerable time, and must not be regarded as an admission by the Committee that they were not entitled to the demurrage claimed, or that the claim to a reduction in the freight stipulated in the charter party was in any degree well-founded.

In view of the fact that the voyage had resulted in a loss to the Committee, the draft of the reply to the Agent-General, with copies of the relevant earlier correspondence, was to be sent to the Treasury for their concurrence.

4. Appraisement of vessels requisitioned from the Prize Court prior to adjudi- cation.-A letter from the Admiralty Marshal, inviting the observations of the Committee upon the form of appraisement adopted by him in the case of the Swedish 8.8. "Atlanten" (proceedings transferred from Sierra Leone to this country) was considered. In this case the Admiralty Marshal had arranged for two values to be given by the appraiser:

(a) The value of the vessel at the date of the requisition, assuming her to be condemned, this being the sum which the vessel might be expected to realize if sold by public auction with bidding restricted to British subjects, French citizens, and Belgian and Italian subjects; and

free vessel, (b) The value of the vessel at the date of requisition as a

assuming the vessel to be released.

It was decided to reply to the Admiralty Marshal that, in the view of the Committee, it would seem desirable to secure, if possible, that non-enemy vessels requisitioned from the Prize Court prior to adjudication should. for the purpose of the requisition, be appraised by the Court only upon the assumption that the vessel would be eventually condemned and that it should be left to the authority employing the vessel to negotiate terms with the claimants as to the compensation to be paid in the event of the Court ultimately deciding that the vessel should be released. Recourse to the Prize Court to assess the compensation to be paid to a claimant for the non-return of his vessel would then only be necessary in cases where an agreement could not be reached between the parties.

5. Treatment of enemy vessels sentenced to detention. The Committee con- sidered the replies of the Foreign Office and His Majesty's Procurator-General-to a suggestion that consideration should be given to the advisability of converting all the existing Orders for the temporary requisition of vessels claiming the benefit of the Sixth Hague Convention (excepting of course those relating to vessels which had been lost) into Orders for permanent requisition, ind of paying, or undertaking to pay, into the Prize Court the value of the essels as at the date when they were first requisitioned. These replies referred to an opinion of the Solicitor-General and Mr. Raeburn, dated the 25th February last, containing the following passage:— "That in our opinion no step can, or should be attempted to be, taken at present which would involve a decision by the Prize Court upon the true construction of Article 2 of the Sixth Hague Convention, either as to the meaning of requisition' or of 'indemnity, or as to the rights, if any, of German owners thereunder. The Privy Council has already refused to give British and a binding decision on this Article (see the 'Gutenfels,' 2 Colonial Prize Cases, page 36, per Lord Wrenbury,' at page 41; see also the recent case of the Germania'). This is our reason for advising. that the steps to be taken should be so taken in strict accordance with the Prize Rules and those alone.

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