MR. GIBSON BOWLESI beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury have His Majesty's Government consulted the Law 1063 Officers of the Crown and come to a decision upon the limits within which the right of search and visit by belligerent warships of neutral merchant ships should be exercised and the limits of the duty of merchantmen to submit to such search and visit. Are British merchant ships required to submit to anything more than search and visit of the ship, and examination of her crew and papers in order to ascertain her nationality, destination, and cargo, and, in case of suspicion arising from such examination to detention and transmission of the ship, in charge of a prize crew, to a Prize Court for adjudication. Are British merchant ships required to submit to the forcible seizure and removal of a portion of their cargo, at the discretion of the captain of the visiting warship, without any authority of, or adjudication by, a Prize Court. And, will His Majesty's Government afford such naval protection along the lines of trade where the right of visit and search is likely to be practised, as will protect British merchant ships from such unauthorised abuses in the exercise of that right as the forcible removal of their cargoes oil the high seas.
§ MR. A. J. BALFOURPerhaps my hon. friend will be content if I say that in the opinion of the legal advisers of the Government the international law is correctly stated, speaking broadly, in the second paragraph of the Question. As regards the third paragraph, I do not believe that it is sanctioned by the practice of international law.