HAGUE CONFERENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 153, 28 June 1907, Page 5

HAGUE CONFERENCE.

—' m ...-■■ i CONTRABAND IN WAR.

PROPOSED ABOLITION. COMPOSITION OP PRIZE COURTS. (By Cable—Pres s Association.—Copyright.) (Received 8.34 a,m.) THE HAGUE, June 27. Owing to the possibility of attaching self-propelling torpedoes to fishing boats or other small craft, which could approach a warship unsuspected, Sir Ernest Satow at the Peace Conference proposed, on behalf of Great Britain, to restrict the employment of torpedoes to recognised warships. The proposal, said the exAmbassador at Pekin, was analagous to the prohibition of civilian combatants without uniform in land warfare.

Great Britain has also proposed the abolition of contraband in time of wax. This important proposal is dictated by the divergences relating to the definition of contraband and the friction arising from the rights of search. Germany, on this head, wished to exempt mail steamers from the delay involved in search.

Great Britain and Germany's draft proposals with regard to prize courts differ materially. Germany proposes that a tribunal should be constituted in wartime of members practically nominated by the two belligerents, while Great Britain favours a court of expert jurisconsults established in peace-time on a neutral basis.