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APPENDIX A.-REPORTS.

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APPENDIX A.-REPORTS.

For the above reasons the Committee would recommend that any Bill intro- duced should contain provisions expressly enabling any Prize Court to remit any case coming before it to any other Prize Court for adjudication. Such a provision would, however, raise another difficulty, to which we desire to draw especial atten- tion. In a considerable number of oversea Prize Courts the officers are claiming to In retain for their own benefit the fees payable under the Prize Court Rules, in accordance with Section 3 (4) of the Prize Courts Act, 1894. the majority of oversea Courts the Marshal is claiming fees payable under Appendix B of the Prize Court Rules, 1914, including in some cases the 1 per cent. In several al calorem fee on all moneys realized by the sale of prizes (item 49).

is claiming to be paid fees in accordance Proper Officer of the Crown cases the " with Appendix C, in spite of the fact that he is already a salaried officer of the Government. In other cases persons or firms who are not salaried officers have been appointed "Proper Officers of the Crown," and are expecting to be remuner- In other Courts, again, the Registrars, ated in accordance with Appendix C.

Having regard and in some even the Judges, are claiming fees under the rules. to these facts, it is to be feared that there may be a certain amount of unwilling- ness among oversea Courts to make the removal orders contemplated, unless the proposed legislation contains some provision for the remuneration of their officers. The insertion of some such provision is, moreover, in the opinion of your Com- mittee, desirable for other reasons. In many Courts the prize proceedings have thrown an exceedingly heavy burden upon the officers concerned, and the system of remuneration by fees is certainly not one to be encouraged.

Your Committee would, therefore, recommend that a Bill should be introduced

as soon as possible on the following lines:-

to.

(i) The Bill should enable any Prize Court in the Empire, on the applica-

tion of the Iroper Officer of the Crown, and

(a) upon being satisfied that proper arrangements have been made for removing the ship or cargo within the jurisdiction of the other Court concerned,

(b) with the assent of the other Court concerned,

to make an order remitting to any other Court any proceedings with regard to any ship or cargo, and making the expenses of the removal of the ship and cargo a charge upon the cargo removed; and the Court to which the proceedings are remitted should be enabled to deal with the case upon the footing that any release ordered by it shall be made con- ditional on payment to the Proper Officer of the Crown of a proportion- ate share of the approved charge for expenses.

(ii) The Bill should also contain provisions enabling the vessels concerned to be brought under the Merchant Shipping Acts for the purpose of the proposed voyage.

(iii) The Bill should extend to all Prize Court officers the provision con- tained in Section 10 of the Naval Prize Act, 1864, allowing His Majesty in Council to grant salaries to the Judges of Prize Courts, This provision would, it is thought, get rid of the difficulties above referred For not only would proof of title be remitted to the ports of destination, where the greater part of the documents are sure to be, but the sanction of the Court for the removal of the cargo would absolve the Proper Officer of the Crown from the necessity of getting into touch with all the parties interested, or obtaining guarantees from persons willing to act on their behalf. It may also be pointed out that the Crown would benefit to a considerable extent in many cases, since any cargo liable to condemnation would usually fetch a much better price at the port of original destination, while, in the case of cargo liable to detention only, the position of the Crown would, for the same reason, be safeguarded, if it should be thought, desirable to sell the cargo, either with a view to prevent deterioration or in order to save the accumulation of warehouse and other charges.

R. A. WISEMAN,

Secretary.

21st January, 1915.

E. J. W. SLADE,

G. L. BARSTOW,

W. J. EVANS,

T. H. HOLT.

H. W. MALKIN, GARNHAM ROPER,

C. TENNYSON,

L. D. WAKELY.

.725

No. 4.

FOURTH INTERIM REPORT OF THE OVERSEA PRIZE DISPOSAL COMMITTEE.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR LORDSHIPS,

to

THE Committee appointed by Treasury minute of 11th November, 1914, report in what classes of case it is expedient that prize ships captured or detained at ports outside the United Kingdom should be moved for sale or disposal to other ports, or should be chartered for purposes of trade, and to make the necessary arrangements in such cases as are remitted to them by the departments concerned in the administration of the territories where the prize ships are detained," and to take the necessary steps empowered by Treasury minute of 5th January, 1915,

for chartering for use in British commerce such enemy ships detained in this country as may be required for the purpose," beg to submit the following report upon their reference.

Proposals have been laid before the Committee for the transfer to the service of the Transport Department of the Admiralty of the bulk of the detained and con- These demned enemy ships placed in our hands under our terms of reference. proposals are set out in the letter from the Director of Transports, a copy of which is appended to this report (see Annexure A), and we have also had the advantage of discussing them personally with representatives of the Transport Department. It will be observed that these proposals, as approved by the Lords Commis- sioners of the Adiniralty, are that the Transport Department should use these ships for the naval and military transport services, and should also be responsible for the use of any of the vessels in question engaged as to one part of their journey for transport work and as to the other for cargo work for the Government.

We gather that the Transport Department, in addition to employing ships for definite naval or military requirements, also arrange for the conveyance of coal and any other purposes other stores for the account of Government Departments, and for which may be specially assigned to them by His Majesty's Government, the convey- ance of sugar from the East for the Sugar Commission being mentioned as an instance. To meet these needs the Transport Department have hitherto drawn almost entirely upon private shipowners, and in this connexion it should be noted that, owing to the pressure of the demands upon them, they have occasionally requisitioned ships constructed for and adapted to particular trades and particular routes and used them for other services, thus causing considerable inconvenience.

We understand that the Transport Department estimate that they could utilize all the detained and condemned steamships either for the purpose of meeting additional requirements or for that of releasing other ships which have been requisitioned by them from British owners.

Before proceeding to consider these proposals in detail we desire to state that there is, in our opinion, a fundamental difference between the detained and con- demned ships which we consider clearly indicates a difference in the manner in which they should be treated.

The detained ship is an unrealizable asset, which is not only of no value to the Crown but may be an expense unless she is taken up and used by the Crown.

The condemned ship, on the other hand, is an immediately realizable asset, for which an exceptionally good market exists at the present time.

We therefore think it desirable to set out our detailed proposals under the separate heads of :-

(a) Detained ships.

(b) Condemned ships.

(a) Detained Ships.-The detained ships in the United Kingdom are being employed in the coasting trade in accordance with the recommendations contained in our Second Interim Report* and approved by His Majesty's Government. This arrangement could not be disturbed without seriously jeopardizing the coal supply of London unless the Transport Department could, for each vessel taken over, immediately release a collier that before the war was working in the London trade. We recommend, therefore, that the arrangement should not be altered.

* No. 2 in Appendix A.