1939-11-29 — Page 4

Wednesday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

November 29, 1939.

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The

Hongkong Telegraph.

Wednesday, November 29, 1939.

Wyndham St., Hongkong

Telephone: 26615

THE prefix "Special to the Telegraph" i used by the "Hongkong Telegraph" to Indicata news which is strictly copyright under the provisions of the Telecommuni cations Ordinance, 1930. Buch news, DE bears the indiestión “UT** in received in Hongkong on the date of pubůration by the United Press Association, who re- serve all rights and ferbla republication. either wholly or in part without previous arrangement,

Price Of Admiralty

OFFERED a choice of how to die, most men would wish, as

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YORK BUILDING

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TERRY'S "AERO” VALVE

Zamanlardiran yzed

SPRINGS

aro the keys to engine eflciency. It is advisable to examine your valve springs at each overhaul for although they may not be broken they may have become weakened resuking in loss of efficiency. I you want snappler acceleration and Improved engine performance, flt

lives in the protection of their country and all that it stands for.

THE CLIENT: "But have you no information for me about a tall, dark man?”-

What happens to the

PRIZES OF

WAR

by George Edinger

T the western end of the Law Courts, in & courtroom usually de- voted to the hearing of Divorce Cases, Britain's 700- year-old Prize Court sits again.

Bir Boyd Merriman, President of the Probato, Divorce and Admiralty- Division, tries the issues. K they are technlesi or complex, he may be assiated by Assessors trom Trinity House. But they are gener- ally simple enough.

That was the destiny of over 250 of the crew of H.M.S. Rawalpindi, the converted mer- chantman, 30 well-known in |Hongkong,-that-was-destroyed--is released and the Crown-pays

earlier this week in an unequal

“CLUPET” DOUBLE COIL PISTON encounter with the third migh- RINGS

will Improve the performance of old engines by as much as 30%. Fit a net and save the cost of a re-lore. "CLUPET" rings will resture lost compression, prevent over olling and reduce PETROL and OIL consumpilan,

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"POL" FUSES.

PERMANENT

Is the diaputed cargo lawful prize or not? If it is, then it must be condemned and sold. If not, it

compensation to the owner.

The cases are tried according to International Law as it has grown up during the past three centuries of war at sea,

According to the Law of Nations, all enemy ships are lawful prize except hospital ships and ships engaged on scientific missions. Go are all enemy cargoes in British, allied or enemy ships.

And so far Germany has been deprived of nearly half a million tons of vital accesatties because of the activities of the British and French Navles.

tiest warship in the Nazi Fleet.. To find a parallel for the heroism of the men-they in- cluded Mercantile Marine men many of whom were probably well-known in Hongkong, since it is probable that the Rawal- pindi retained her old crew when she was taken over by the Admiralty you must search back in history to the days of MERCURY the last war. Britain has far too long an experience of naval war- fare to suppose that, however

Fa cargo in a neutral strong the British Fleet, it can

slip is partly contra- band and partly harm- less, sweep an enemy from the scas

then, according "Doctrins of Infection," the con- without injury. In the Deutsch-traband goeds taint the rest, and

After short circuit you simply tap one end on hard surface and the fuse is again ready for use. If you use "POL" fuses you need not curry sparex,

ALL THE ABOVE ARE BRITISH PRODUCTS.

STOCKED BY:

land and Admiral Scheer type of enemy we have two opponents

But enemy cargoes in neutral ships and neutral cargoes in enemy ships are lawful prize only if they can be proved contraband of war. States at war themselves proclaim the list of articles they consider contraband.

I

the

all goods belonging to the owner of the contraband are lawful prize.

All the goods so

so taken at sea and condemned by the Prize Court be-

China Motor Agencies & Sales Co. worthy of our steel and neither long to the Grown. But in 1337

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ship will fall to the guns of a cruiser unless skill and, to a cer- TEL. 22157.

tain extent, luck is added to the BAZÉNZKE encounter. The armaments of

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the so-called “pocket battleships" are superior to those aboard cruisers and it will need one of the heavier typa British war- ships to deal adequately with these marauders,

the King of England made over that right to the officers and men who actually took the prizes. And that remained the custom down to 1914.

Prize money, in fact, was, more than any other, the bait that lured recruits into the eighteenth cen- tury Navy. But when the World War broke out in 1914, that old, romantic, but unjust, system was ended.

In order that men whose duties kept them with the Grand Fleet

Many Hongkong people who served in her. "The price of have travelled Home on leave admiralty is heavy." Those who aboard the 'Pindi, as she was pay it for us now, when admir- affectionately called by her pas-alty mean the safety, honour sengers and crow, will regret the and wolfare not only of cour loss of this fine liner of the Commonwealth of Nations, but P. & O. fleet. Hor loss, how-of freedom throughout the ever, is of less importance than world, have laid on us the duty the loss of the gallant men who to be worthy of their sacrifice.

should have the same chance to secure prize money as those aboard cruisers along the highways of enemy commerce, all proceeds from the sale of cargoes taken at sea were turned over to a common fund for the benent of the officers and men of the Royal Navy, as u whole

#

distribution Was

Tare

carefully worked out by

the Director of Navy Accounts. And there were still rich prizes to distribute. The total value of those taken in the last war was £0,035,000.

The average A.B.'s share worked out at $20 a head. But 10,000 of them never even bothered to claim

heir portion at the end of it.

Obviously, much of the zest and glamour the words "prize money" evoked of ald has ovaporated aince the prizes were taken from the actual captors. And yet there are still cases where the captor retains his ancient rights. They are called cases of Prizs, Bounty.

Prize Bounty Wa

was Arat devised by Oliver Cromwell to meet the complaint that, while sailors who took a merchantman received the those who proceeds of her care

warship got no prize captured a money at all, Originally it was distributed among crews who took or sunk an armed enomy ship, at the rate of £20 for every gun on an admiral'a ship, £10 per gun on a vico-admiral's, and £10 per gun on all others. Now it is £5 for

overy person aboard the sunk or captured vessel.

The record sum won in prize bounty was the £31,000 awarded to the officers and

and crew of submarine sank a Turkish troop- They san B.14. ahip in the Sea of Marmora in

May, 1915. That was a test case, for the Law says that prize bounty can be distributed only for the sinking of an armed ship, and this transport, it was argued, was not an armed ship.

However, there was a battery of Krupp guns mounted astern, and as the Court eventually held that the arms need not be attached to the ship the prize bounty was finally paid out,

But there is neither prize money nor Prize Bounty for ships taken in har- bour, in the way that neveral German merchantmen were taken at the begin ning of this war,

In the 13th Century, when the Lord High Admiral's Court was first evolved, to handle prizes, the Common Law of England uld down that while prizes taken at sea were the King's property, those captured in harbour were a per- quisite of the Lord High Admiral.

There has not been a Lord High

·Admiral for a hundred years...........His per- quisites have devolved on the Ad- miralty, which, being a Government department, now devoles their proceeds to the relief of taxation by paying them into the Consolidated Fund,

T may scem irrational that ancient precedent should make such dif- ferences. But ancient precedent han governed Prize Court proce- duro all through its history.

During those years the law of prize and the nature of contraband have changes! with the ever-changing nature of war at sea,

Yet the English Prízo Court has re- mained essentially the same as it was in the days when Drake and Blake and Nelson stood up to give their evidence before its judges; à tribunal of im- menso sulliority extending over all the seven seag, whose skill and fairness hayo been admitted by twenty genera- tions, neutrals and enemics.

GRIN AND BEAR IT

By Lichty

1 wish you'd stuff 'a shirt, in Junior's mouth-I'm trying to listen to this programmo on child psychology!"

Nazi Plaint-

Wanted: More Officer's

WHAT is the calibre of the new

German army? What is the effect of the changes that have been carried out in it Binee 19187

Like everything else in a totalitor- a State, pubilention of strength or of material is very rare, and it is diflcult to entimate numbers. In November, 1938, however, the. Ger- mans published

significant some Agures, namely, the number of divi- Klons and higher formations that of редсе. already existed in time There were then six Ay Groups, 18 Army Corps, 39 divisions, four light divisions, five tank divisions,

and divisions three mountain cavalry Brigade.

The total of 51 peace-ume divisions may very well have advanced this year to GD or more, and It is quite passible that it would be 120 divisions at war strength.

Contrast With Franco

Measures of mobilisation have for some time been in force and classes that had not-served-a-full-period of two years have received special in- struction. The dimculty, however, remains that only three of those dis- persing in 1937, 1938, 1839 are avail able as trained reserves, though most of the other classes have been trained from time to time for short periods. Germany has not therefore avail- able that solid block of 5,000,000 sol- diers that the French possess, whe have all done their complete perfors of service in the ranks.

The ofeer situation is also a great dificulty. Field-Marshal von Blom- berg, the former Commander-in- Chief of the Armed Forces, and his generals at the time that the new urmy was formed had a great tussle the as to with the party lenders material from which the new officers were to come. The Nazi lenders wanted them to be party en, where- as the generals insisted on looking to the old class of officers for future supply,

really

The generals won, but li menut that for a number of years they would lack a solid "middle piece" for their regimental officers, as all the senior ones were having very quick promotion. When I attended the manoeuvres In 1936 and 1937 the units of any only officers in the seniority were the battalion ond bat- tery coinmanders. Apart from them they were mostly 2nd lieutenants and not more than one of them per com- pany or battery,

This lack of experienced offers lll be one of Germany's great hun- dicaps in war.

Disposing Her Resources

1tı

Let us turn now to the possibility of the dispositions of Germany's 120 or 130 divisions. In September last Germany disposed 32 divisions deal with Czecho-Slovakia, only nine divisions on the Franco-Belgian front and the rest in reserve or in East Prussia. She assumed that France at Britain were not going to fight and relied on nine divisions and her fortress troops to hold the Siegfried Line.

On this occasion the situation is radically different. On her eastern front she has the country which she destres to crush as soon as she can.. But the Poles are no mean adver- saries. They have a population of 30,000,000 and 30, peace-time' divi- stons. Their moral is excellent and they will fight to the very end.

Al recent fighting with the |machine-gun arm, increased as this has been, goes to show that the greater power lies with the defence. and the Poles should be able to take full advantage of Thole Army

* PLEASE Turn To Page 3.