GERMAN MERCHANTMEN.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 June 1916, Page 8

GERMAN MERCHANTMEN.

WHAT BECOMES OF THEM. The question is often asked "What becomes of the captured German vessels? This is answered in the following words: In the British Prize Court sitting under the presidency of Sir Samuel Evans no fewer than eighty-four captured enemy vessels have already been condemned as prizes, and of these' fortytwo have been sold and forty-two requisitioned. The number of enemy vessels captured and ordered to be detained until after tlie war has been seventythree All of these have been requisitioned. The totals of ships dealt with under these headings have been: — No. of vessels. Tonnage. Condemned 84 110,014 Detained > 73 55.03 C 157 1!k),93n Requisitioned .• 115 141,108 42 54,752 The total proceeds of the sale of ships and cargo is £0,850,000. After taking account of the proceeds released to claimants and the expense of .sales and of the upkeep of detained and captured vessels there is a balance in the prize fund approximately of .£4,85(1,000. At the present moment there is an enormous quantity of cargo still remaining in the Prize Court to be sold, and in addition there are the requisitioned enemy vessels which will be sold Inter.

In fact tlie goods awaiting tlie decision of tlie Prize Court at one time and another have constituted "one of tlie {greatest stores on earth," as \v»; one day observed in the Prize Court.

In orjlcr to evade the vigilance of the, British authorities in their search for contraband all sorts of devices have been resorted to by the enemy owners and their so-called neutral agents. What the Attorney General on one occasion described as a "gang of financiers of enemy origin," had endeavored to bluff the British authorities, but without success.

In one ease some bars of aluminium originally stamped "Hamburg" (it was suggested by someone in court it should have been "Humbug"), their evident destination were blacked over with "Gothenburg." A few of the bars which had aroused suspicion ivcre submitted to Professor Herbert Jackson, who applied a solvent and exposed the whole trick, the word "Hamburg" being plainly revealed in its' original form and bringing condemnation to the whole lot. A mass of correspondence in many languages and "assumed" names was so pieced together in the Prize Court as to reveal a widespread scheme of German agents in all parts of the world to get cargoes through neutral countries into Gorman}'.