§ 5. Major HUNTasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the policy of tightening the blockade which has now been put into force means that all ships arrested by the Navy on suspicion of carrying goads with enemy destination are now to be adjudicated upon by our Prize Court without interference by the Foreign Office or by any other authority, or whether such interference is in some or many cases still practised?
§ The UNDER-SECRETARY of STATE for FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Lord Robert Cecil)Under modern conditions of warfare it is impossible to exorcise the belligerent right of search satisfactorily on the high seas. Hence it has become necessary to send into a British port for search all or almost all ships proceeding to ports in neutral countries adjacent to Germany which do not voluntarily call at such ports. There the search takes place, and it is only after such search that any judgment can be formed as to the probable ultimate destination of the cargo carried by the vessel. The data for such a judgment include the nature of the cargo, the character of the consignors and consignees, the amount of similar articles recently imported into the neutral country for which the ship is bound and, it may be, other information of a secret character which 1497 has come into the hands of His Majesty's Government. All information bearing on these and other relevant points is collected in London, and it is therefore in London that the question is necessarily determined whether there are any grounds for putting into the Prize Court the ship, the cargo, or any part of it. To put into the Prize Court all vessels and their cargoes which are sent into port as explained above, as apparently my hon. Friend suggests, would be neither just nor wise.