HL Deb 12 October 1915 vol 19 cc1034-5

LORD STRACHIE had the following Questions on the Paper—

To ask his Majesty's Government—

  1. 1. Whether goods owned by the enemy if captured at sea are confiscated.
  2. 2. Whether the Order in Council dated March 11 last is being carried out in the strictest manner.
  3. 3. Whether the Lord Chief Justice is empowered to agree with the American Government for the setting up of a new International Tribunal to take the place of existing Prize Courts.
  4. 4. Whether the fullest rights of search by the Fleet are being maintained and carried out by the Admiralty.

The noble Lord said: My noble friend the Leader of the House informs me that it would not be in the public interest for me to put these Questions.

THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (THE MARQUESS OF CREWE)

My Lords, perhaps I might say a word or two on this subject as my noble friend has withdrawn his Questions. As soon as I saw them on the Paper I communicated with my noble friend and explained to hint the reasons why, in our opinion, it was not expedient that they should be put. Questions of this kind cannot be answered in this House in the brief manner in which a Question in the House of Commons, as a rule, receives an answer, and it might be assumed that they would lead here to a regular debate on the subjects raised. After consulting with some of my colleagues we agreed that it would be highly undesirable that a debate of this kind should now take place. There are, no doubt, occasions on which it is advisable and may even be necessary that a categorical statement should be made on questions of international Law such as those which are raised by these Questions, particularly the very different side of International Law modified as it has been by the new circumstances of this particular war in its relation to neutral countries. But questions are raised of great delicacy and difficulty concerning International Law and also in respect of our foreign relations with certain countries, and we feel that considerable risk would be run of misapprehension and possibly misinterpreta- tion if we were to endeavour to engage in such a discussion at this time. Misinterpretation is not difficult by taking single sentences out of a statement apart from their context and using them as the basis for an argument, and so many intricate and delicate questions might arise out of the Questions which my noble friend has placed on the Paper that we all feel grateful to him for not having persisted in them, and I am quite sure that nobody will be more glad than he to reflect that some possible dangers have been avoided by the absence of a discussion this afternoon.