NAVAL OPERATIONS.

Hokitika Guardian, 17 April 1918, Page 2

NAVAL OPERATIONS.

TEN german TRAWLERS

SUNK IN CATTEGATT

'tßeceived This Dav at- 9.50. a.nM LONDON, April 16.

The Admiralty reports that ten Herman trawlers were sunk by gunfire during a sweep in the Caitegat on tho 15 th.

\ British -shins saved the trawler crews. There were no British casualties.

PRIZE COURT DECISION

AN IMPORTANT JUDGMENT

(Received This Day at 9.30. a'.m.) •. LONDON, April 16. \ Justice Evans, in the Prize Court in condemning the Dutch vessel Lepnonn and cargo of Belgian coal for Sweden from Rotterdam, delivered an important judgment, upholding the Orddr-in-Counoil of February, 1917, which, as a reprisal against the new German submarine policy, authorised the capture of neutrals carrying enemy cargoes. The owners contended that .reprisals must not infringe neutrals’ rights ■under the estti blished internatiinal. law. Justice Evans scathingly sketched the , history of German submariue barbarity. ' Alluding to the Lusitania, he said there had been no crueller crime since the time of Cain. The German submarine policy rendered retaliatory measures imperative. Evans remarked that neutrals who complained of interference in trade, forgot they are making enormous profits at the expense of belligerents. The judgment affects two Dutch and , six Swedish ■ vessels.