Page
PRESIDENT LINER Sailings
TRANS-PACIFIC SERVICE
To
SAN FRANCISCO & LOS ANGELES Via Shanghai, Japan & Honolulu ROUND-WORLD SERVICE
To
NEW YORK & BOSTON Via Manila, Singapore, Penang, Colombo, Bombay, Suez, Port Said, Alexandria, Naples, Genoa and Marseilles.
✰✰ AMERICAN ✰✰ PRESIDENT LINES
“ ROUND-WOrld service.”
12, PEDDER ST.
TELEPHONE 28171.
INDO-CHINA
STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY LTD.
OPERATING SERVICES FOR CARGO and PASSENGERS
TO-SWATOW, SHANGHAI, TSINGTAO, CHEFOO and TIENTSIN
KOBE and OSAKA
SINGAPORE, PENANG and CALCUTTA
SANDAKAN
HAIPHONG.
For Further Particulars Please Apply To
JARDINE, MATHESON
& CO., LTD.
GENERAL MANAGERS. TELEPHONE 30311.
THE CHINA MAIL,. OCTOBER 4, 1939.
ARMING OF BRITAIN'S MERCHANT SHIPPING
London, To-day.
IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS last week, the First Lord of the Admiralty mentioned that for a fortnight past armed merchantmen had continually been leaving Bri- tish harbours and that, in a short time, the huge mer- chant navy of Britain would be armed.
This is merely the application of a very old principle-the right of a belligerent merchant ship to defend herself against capture or attack.
Neutral merchantmen are in a dif-raiders on the outbreak of war the ferent position as they are bound to Admiralty announced that it would obey a lawful order to stop and must be their policy to submit to visit and search.
A belligerent merchant ship need not, but may evade or resist capture if she can.
provide British merchant vessels with defensive arma- ment and the subsequent submarine campaign during the war led to the adoption of this policy for all Bri- tish ships.
cruisers.
The latter, which are commissioned as vessels of war, are entitled to en- gage in offensive belligerent opera-
In a communication issued by the Ministry of Information, it is recalled Although both belligerents, there is that up to the Napoleonic Wars, all a difference between defensively arm- merchantmen went more or less arm-ed merchantmen and armed merchant ed against piracy even in peace time, When piracy virtually died, it became unnecessary for merchant ships to go armed in time of peace while with the coming of ironclad warships and! previous to the use of the submarine for commerce destruction, it became useless to arm merchant ships in war time, as they could never contend with modern surface warships.
the
DIED OUT FOR A TIME The practice of arming them, therefore, died out for a time, but the right was never lost and circumstances of the last war caused the former practice to be revived.
In 1913, in consequence of the pro- bability that German merchantmen would carry guns with which they would convert themselves into armed
tions.
DIFFERENT STATUS
::
They lose the status of the merchant and acquire that of warships. The defensively armed merchantman on the other hand is not commissioned to take any offensive action. She ro- mains a merchant ship and cannot in consequence be sunk at sight, nor would the carriage of defensive arm- ament justify such action.
She must in all cases be called upon to stop. And it would only be in the event of persisten refusal to do so, or of her offering resistance to capture, that forcible action could be taken to make her comply. Even so the force used by the warship must not be greater than is necessary to effect cap- ture.
The merchantman, on the other hand, while she may not, without losing her mercantile status, adopt-of- fensive action or attack a warship, may evade or resist capture, and may, as soon as i warship manifests a clear intention to effect capture, use her desi fensive armament to avoid it.—British Wireless.
SMOKE
Genuine C Ingenohl's
LA PERLA DEL ORIENTE
GUARANTEED HAND MADE!
CIGARS
—____
C. INGENOHL'S CIGAR STORES
LA PERLA DEL ORIENTE
EXECUTIONS
Six executions took place at Stanley
·Prison this morning, the first at 5 a.m.
The men were:
They
Troi Làm 30;
Leung Kam," 22; ·|
LI Fuk, 26;
Chan Luk, 40;
Li Wan-cheung, 27; and Chan Kam, 27.
were found guilty at the Criminal Sessions last month of the murder of Li Hung who was thrown into the sea after having his hands tied behind his back with a rope to which was attached a large rock.
PUBLIC AUCTION
The Undersigned have received instructions to sell by Public Auction on
Monday, the 9th. October, 1939 commencing at 10.30 a-m. at their Sales Room, No. 2 Connaught Road, Central. (Room No. 205, 2nd. Floor) A Quantity of Miscellaneous·
Goods
comprising:
Glass Ward, Crockery, Cur- tains, Wines, Suitcases, Orna- ments and Sundries.
One "Remington" Typewriter (portable)
also
Typewriter
OneRemington"
Noiseless
One New H.M.V. Electric Iron One Steel Folding Picnic Table
in Case T
One Rowing Machine.
One Bathroom Scale.
Two "Silex" Coffee Makers
Band
A Few Pieces of Curios Terms. Cash on Delivery
LAMMERT BROS.;
Auctioneers. Hong Kong, 4th. October, 1939,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.