CONTRABAND BY PARCEL POST

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2833, 26 July 1916, Page 7

CONTRABAND BY PARCEL POST

RUBBER AS INVIOLABLE i'CORRESPONDENCE." Tho British and French Governments officially announced their decision, rocontly on tho question of the examination and detention of postal parcels found in vessels visited on the high seas. Enemy traffic, deprived of the freedom of tho soas, has been brought to hiding itself under tho guiso of "correspondence," so as to cover the transit of all kinds of goods, oven contraband of war, through tho post offices, of neutral States. The two Allied Governments now declare: That goods sent in the form of postal parcels are not entitled to/ and will not receive, other treatment than goods sent in any other way; that the inviolability of postal correspondence, as laid down by tho 11th Hague Convention, in no. way detracts from tho right to detain and seize goods concealed in wrappers or letters in mailbags; and that genuine "correspondence" will for the present continue to be forwarded as rapidly, as possiblo to its destination, although, according to the German Government, the 11th Hague Convention is not in fact operative, as it has not been ratified by all tho Powers now at war. . •

There is no reason why mailbags should bo allowed to shelter contraband such as tho following articles: 1302 postal parcels, containing ' altogether 437.510 kilog. of rubber for Hamburg (steamships Tijuca, Bahia, Jaguaribo, Maranhao, Acre, Olinda, Para, Brazil), or, further, GO postal parcels, containing 400 revolvers for Germany via Amsterdam (steamship Golria). On the arival of the steamship Tubantia there was found in her mailbags 17451b. of rubber, a commodity especially sought aftor by tho onetny. Noutrals are reminded that:

"From December 31, 1914, to December 31, 1915, the German or Austro-Hun-garian naval authorities destroyed without warning or preliminary visit 13 mail 6teamers, with tho mail-bags on board. coming from or destined to neutral or Allied countries, without troubling any move about tho inviolability of tho dispatches and correspondence they contained than about tho lives of the inoffensive persons on board these vessels. "The A'llied Governments arc not aware that any protest regarding this postal correspondence has been addressed to tho Imperial Governments.

"From the legal point of view, the exercise of the belligerent right of policing and examining ships on tho high seas, and especially what is found on board, has never, to the knowledge of the Allied Governments, been questioned, whether as regards mail-bags or as regards any other cargo; furthermore, up to 1907, letters and dispatches were themselves subject to seizure and coniiscation."'