§ SIR EDWARD BIRKBECK (Norfolk, E.)asked the Secretary to the Board of Trade, Whether a foreign cruiser is entitled by German law, not only to board a fishing vessel not engaged in fishing, and belonging to a fleet of smacks, whether within, or outside territorial waters, but also to fire ball cartridge at and run into her, when no offence has been committed; and, whether the German Government have offered any explanation as to the grounds on which the officer in command of the German cruiser took the Grimsby smack, Lady Godiva, into Wilhelmshaven, the captain of the smack in question having been acquitted?
§ THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Sir JAMES FERGUSSON) (Manchester, N.E.), (who replied) said: Fishing boats within; territorial waters and in the North Sea, under the Convention of 1882, must heave to at the order of the commander of a cruiser, and if they disobey the; commander may compel them to do so. This provision is plainly implied in; Articles 26, 28, and 29. But the suspicion against the Lady Godiva, was of; fishing in the territorial German waters, on which ground the cruiser was in her right in requiring the smack to heave to. The master of the Lady Godiva was acquitted of the charge of illegal fishing; and the charge of resistance to the German cruiser was apparently not pressed, The full report of the trial has not yet I been received; when it reaches Her Majesty's Government they will carefully consider the facts of the case, and such action as may be proper will then be taken.