OCR Text |
Show APPAM IS RESTORED - TO ENGLISH CWERS Ship and Cargo Must Be Delivered De-livered Within the Next Thirty Days. WASHINGTON, March 6. In a unanimous unani-mous opinion the supreme court today decreed restoration to her English owners own-ers of the liner Appam and cargo, brouRht into Hampton Roads more than a year ago by a prize crew from the German -raider Moewe. Ship and carf;o, valued at between three and four million dollars, must be delivered within thirty days, as the court's order is final. The decision, written by Justice Day, afflrm3 decrees by Federal Judge Wad-dill Wad-dill of Virginia, and upholds the original ruling by Secretary Lansing:, that prizes coming into American ports unaccompanied unaccom-panied by captor warships, have the right to remain only long enough to make I themselves seaworthy. j American neutrality was violated in bringing the Appam into Hampton Roads, ; the court says, and neither the ancient treaties relied upon by Lieutenant Berg, the German prize commander. The Hague conventions nor the declaration of London Lon-don entitles any belligerents lo make American ports a place for deposit of prizes as spoils of war under such circumstances. cir-cumstances. "The principals of International law," the opinion adds. "leaving the treaty aside, will not permit the ports of tho United States to be thus used by the belligerents. bel-ligerents. If such use were permitted, it would constitute the ports of a neutral nation harbors of safety into which prizes might be safely brought ajid indefinitely kept. "From the beginning of its history this country has been careful to maintain a neutral position between warring governments govern-ments and not to allow use of Its ports In violation of the obligations of neutrality neu-trality nor to permit such use beyond the necessities arising from the perils of the seas, or the necessities of such vessels as lo seaworthiness, provisions and supplies." |