that no owner appears to demand compensation. The goods taken are sometimes of such nature as to make valuation difficult. (f) Booty commonly applies to military supplies seized from the enemy. In a more general sense it applies to all property of the enemy which is susceptible of appropriation. Such property passes to the state of the captor, and its disposition should be determined by that state. OUTLINE OF CHAPTER XIX STATUS OF PROPERTY AT SEA 109. VESSELS. (a) Status of public vessels of a belligerent. 110. GOODS. 111. SUBMARINE AND RADIO TELEGRAPHY. (a) Treatment of submarine telegraphic cables in time of war. (b) Treatment of radio telegraph in time of war. CHAPTER XIX STATUS OF PROPERTY AT SEA 109. Vessels VESSELS may be classed as public, belonging to the state, and private, belonging to citizens of the state. (a) Public vessels of a belligerent are liable to capture in Status of public any port or sea except in jurisdictional waters of a neutral. The following public vessels are, however, exempt from capture unless they per vessels of a belligerent. form some hostile act: (1) Cartel ships commissioned for the exchange of prisoners. (2) Vessels engaged exclusively in non-hostile scientific work and in exploration.1 (3) Hospital ships, properly designated and engaged exclusively in the care of the sick and wounded.2 (b) Private vessels of the enemy are liable to capture in any port or sea except in jurisdictional waters of Status of pri vate vessels of a belligerent. capture: a neutral. The following private vessels when innocently employed are, however, exempt from (1) Cartel ships. (2) Vessels engaged in explorations and scientific work. (3) Hospital ships. (4) Small coast fishing vessels. This exemption is not allowed to deep-sea fishing vessels.3 1 Appendix, p. lxxxiv. Appendix, p. lxxviii. Appendix, p. lxxxiv; Paquete Habana, 175 U. S. 677; The Berlin, L. R. 1914, p. 265. (5) Small boats employed in local trade. (6) Vessels of one of the belligerents in the ports of the other at the outbreak of hostilities were frequently allowed a specified time in which to take cargo and depart. In the war between the United States and Spain, 1898, Spanish vessels were allowed thirty days in which to depart and were to be exempt on homeward voyage. Vessels sailing from Spain for the United States ports before the declaration of war were to be allowed to continue their voyages.1 Spain allowed vessels of the United States five days in which to depart.2 It did not prohibit the capture of such ships after departure. No provision was made for vessels sailing from the United States for Spanish ports before the declaration of war. Provisions of the Hague Conference. The Hague Convention of 1907 relative to the Status of Enemy Merchant Ships at the Outbreak of Hostilities provided for "a reasonable number of days of grace" for vessels in an enemy port at the outbreak of hostilities or entering an enemy port without knowledge of the hostilities. Enemy merchant vessels on the sea ignorant of the outbreak of hostilities may be detained without compensation or requisitioned or even destroyed on payment of compensation, due care being taken for security of persons and papers on board. These exemptions do not apply to "merchant ships whose build shows that they are intended for conversion into war-ships." 3 At the outbreak of the World War, Great Britain was prepared to allow ten days of grace to enemy vessels, France allowed seven days, Japan two weeks, but in general belligerents entering the war at later periods 1 Proclamation of April 26, 1898. 'Appendix, p. lxxvi. * Decree of April 23, 1898. |