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69.

APPENDIX A.-REPORTS.

As has already been indicated, the transactions under this insurance scheme are not yet completed, and it is apprehended that many months will pass before the scheme can be finally closed. '

Accounts.

70. The Committee now wish to refer to their general financial position, and in this connexion they are appending to this report a statement of their accounts to the 30th September last (see Appendix "E").

71. Concerning the arrangement of the accounts, the Committee beg to observe that it is only comparatively recently that a decision has been announced concerning the extent to which moneys accruing from condemned prize are to be made over for the benefit of the Naval Prize Fund, and they therefore found it necessary to determine the form in which their accounts should be prepared without the guidance which an early pronouncement on this point would have afforded them. 72. Moreover, the Committee are not yet aware of any comprehensive decision having been arrived at as to the lines of settlement between the Imperial Exchequer and the Oversea Governments in regard to a number of matters affecting the prizes dealt with in the Oversea Courts, and they are therefore still precluded from pre- senting their accounts in a form showing a precise apportionment of the items to the interests concerned.

73. In order, however, to meet as far as possible any contingency that was likely to arise, the Committee have from the outset separated the various items, wherever possible, according to the several Prize Court causes to which they relate, and they have also preserved, as far as practicable, a distinction between receipts and payments upon

"idle

account and receipts and payments arising from the utilization of the various vessels. For the purpose of the summarized account, the so-called "idle" items have been subdivided into "Prize" (implying condemned prize) items and "Detained" (implying seizures ordered to be detained) items, the items in respect of seizures not falling within either of these categories being provisionally posted to a section entitled "Miscellaneous." The items connected with the use of the vessels are shown under the heading of "Freight.”

74. The section devoted to "Prize" is further divided into (a) ships and goods captured at sea and condemned, and (b) ships and goods captured in port and condemned, and does not take into account the values of vessels which have been passed on to the Transport Department. The "Freight" section shows the figures separately for (a) ships captured at sea and condemned, (b) ships captured in port and condemned, and (c) ships ordered to be detained.

75. Concerning the vessels transferred to the Transport Department, it has been the practice, in the case of the condemned vessels, to assess the liability of the Transport Department to the Committee by means of a valuation of the vessel, either by Messrs. C. W. Kellock and Company or by Messrs. Lachlan and Company, as at the date of handing over. The total of these valuations amounts to £2,714,599 18s. 5d., being £1,685,228 10s. 2d., in respect of the vessels classified as "Captured at sea and condemned," and £1,029,371 8s. 3d. in respect of the vessels shown as "Captured in port and condemned." Detained vessels which have been handed over to the Transport Department have been transferred without valuation. 76. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to add that the separation of the trans- actions as between captures at sea and captures in port has been made upon incom- plete information in many instances, and may not, therefore, correspond in all cases with the decisions which will be reached by the Naval Prize Tribunal upon a full inquiry. Any deductions drawn from Appendix "E" must therefore have regard to this consideration.

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77. After allowing for the appropriate transactions under the Insurance Fund, a profit of £548,303 6s. 7d. has been realized up to the 30th September last on account of the ships operated by the Committee, and this figure will no doubt be considerably augmented when the outstanding accounts are completed. In this latter connexion it should be mentioned that a number of accounts await examina- tion, and there are also some accounts (relating to recent voyages) which have not yet been received from the managers.

78. Having regard to the exceptional circumstances under which the Com- mittee have employed the vessels, they feel it unnecessary to enter into any further commentary upon the results of their efforts in trading beyond the remark that, in

APPENDIX A.-REPORTS.

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general, they have been guided by the principle that the vessels which came under their direction should, wherever reasonably possible, be employed to meet any special needs of the oversea territories. This has resulted in some vessels being utilized in a manner less remunerative than might have been arranged, but the Committee have felt that the administrative considerations outweighed the purely financial interests. Upon the establishment of the Ministry of Shipping the Committee naturally sought the guidance of that Department as to the voyages upon which the vessels should be engaged, but it should be remarked that by that time the bulk of the Committee's fleet had been transferred to the Transport Department.

79. Disregarding sums received by way of interest, a gross sum £388,516 78..9d. has been realized in respect of the nine vessels sold by the Committee, or £376,316 78. 9d. after providing for the amount paid out in respect of the forty per cent. share in the s.s. "Nicolaos" which was directed to be released. The expenses directly attributable to the sale of these ships amount to £2,770 18s. 2d.

Outstanding business.

of

80. Before concluding it may be of assistance to Your Lordships that the Committee should summarize the outstanding matters to which reference is made in the first two paragraphs of this report.

81.

Stated generally, the matters may be said to fall under the following

four heads:——

(a) Completion of current voyages;

(b) Completion of the operations under the scheme for the insurance of

detained enemy vessels whilst laid

up

in port;

(c) Completion of the operations under the scheme for the insurance of prize

cargoes; and

(d) Completion of accounts (voyage and general).

82. Of these matters the Committee think that the Ministry of Shipping may be willing to attend to (a), and to continue with (d). Little remains to be done in regard to (b), but a considerable amount of work of a detailed character remains to be performed in connexion with (c) and (d).

Acknowledgments.

83. Having been favoured with so much assistance from so many quarters, both official and private, the Committee feel that it is difficult for them to particularize.

84. They have already referred to the help afforded them in special matters by the Admiralty Marshal in this country, Mr. H. W. Lovell, and his deputy, Mr. M. Rackham, and also by Mr. B. A. Glanvill, of Messrs. Glanvill, Enthoven, and Company, and they desire to take this opportunity of placing on record their high appreciation of the assistance which has been extended to them on various occasions by the Treasury Solicitor's Department.

85. In March, 1918, Messrs. Waltons and Company, who were originally appointed to act as solicitors for the Committee, felt themselves unable to continue an arrangement previously made with them whereby the firm consented to act as agents of the Treasury Solicitor in cases involving litigation, except upon the under- standing that their charges were paid in full on the usual scale fixed by the rules. Upon the matter being referred to the Treasury Solicitor, the latter undertook to act for the Committee direct. The Committee have already expressed to Messrs. Waltons and Company their warm thanks for the assistance which this firm afforded them.

86. The Committee are also indebted to the Assistant Paymaster-General for Supreme Court Business, and to the Ministry of Shipping, for invaluable assistance in connexion with their accounts, and in particular to Mr. H. L. Montfort Bebb, Mr. J. Shearer, Mr. C. S. Hooper, M.B.E., and Miss M. D. Bebb, who have been specially associated with this side of the Committee's business. The Committee have already expressed in correspondence their high appreciation of the services rendered by the Assistant Paymaster-General for Supreme Court Business and Mr. H. L. Montfort Bebb.

87. The Committee have also expressed in correspondence their high apprecia- tion of the services rendered by Lieutenant-Colonel A. Leslie in the administration