Nelson's history of the war. Vol. XI., The struggle for the Dvina, and the great invasion of Serbia

168 APPENDIX II.

cerned, can be seen between the search of a ship of 1,000 tons and one of 20,000 tons, except possibly a difference in time, for the purpose of establishing fully the character of her cargo and the nature of her service and destination. . . . This method would be a direct aid to the belligerents concerned, in that it would release a belligerent vessel overhauling the neutral from its duty of search and set it free for further belligerent operations.”

A

EVIDENCE OF CONTRABAND.

8. Turning to the character and sufficiency of the evidence of the contraband nature of shipments to warrant the detention of a suspected vessel or cargo for prize proceedings, it will be recalled that when a vessel is brought in for adjudication Courts of Prize have hitherto been bound by well-established and long-settled practice to consider at the first hearing only the ship’s papers and documents, and the goods found on board, together with the written replies of the officers and seamen to standing interrogatories taken under oath, alone and separately as soon as possible, and without communication with, or instruction by, counsel, in order to avoid possibility of corruption and fraud.

9. Additional evidence was not allowed to be introduced except upon an order of the Court for ““ further proof,” and then only after the cause had been fully heard upon the facts already in evidence, or when this evidence furnished a ground for prosecuting the inquiry further. This was the practice of the United States Courts during the war of 1812, the American Civil War, and the Spanish-American War, as is evidenced by the reported decisions of those Courts, and has been the practice of the British Prize Courts for over a century. This practice has been changed by the British Prize Court rules adopted for the present war by the Order in Council of the 5th August. Under these new rules there is no longer a “first hearing ” on the evidence derived from the ship, and the Prize Court is no longer precluded from receiving extrinsic