LAWS OF NAVAL WAR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 49, 23 March 1909, Page 3

LAWS OF NAVAL WAR.

RESULT OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE.

Received March 22. 10.30 p.m. Lxuiion, .March 22.

Two Blue-books on the International Naval Conference, cabled on February 27th, have been issued. They include a declaration consisting of the codification of the laws of naval war, signed on behalf of Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Hungary, me Netherlands, and four others who were represented at the Conference and are expected to sign before June.

The aim of the Conference was to define principles for the guidance of the proposed International Prize Court. Sir Edward Grey's instructions to the British delegates were to preserve those legitimate rights of belligerents which hail heretofore proved essential for tee successful assertion of British sea-power and to defend British independence. The Morning Post declares that legal experts and strategists will find that those objects were attained, and Unit the work of the Conference was one of the most successful efforts of British j diplomacy.

THE TIMES' COMMENT. Received 23, 1.5 a.m. London, March 22. The Times, dealing with the Naval Blue Books, says on the whole they are, not unsatisfactory, but no satisfactory agreement has been reached regarding a merchantman's right, whic'j Britain denies, to convert itself into a warship upon the high seas, nor whether the nationality, or, as Britain contends, the. domicile of the owner determines the character, whether neutral or enemy, of his own goods. The British 'delegates, reporting to Sir E. Grey, give :grounds for hoping that the Court will adopt the British view on the last-nam-ed point, but regarding the former there is no such hope. j