118 
or to requisition, in accordance, in either oase, with the 
Convention aforesaid. The said Privileges will also not 
extend to merchant ships which show bj their build 
that they arg intended for conversion into warships, 
as such vessels are outside the scopo of the said Con 
vention, and are liable on adjudication by the Prize 
Court to condemnation as prize. 
7. Enemy merchant ships allowed to depart under 
Articles 3 and 4 will be provided with a pass indi- 
cating the port to which they are to proceed, and the 
route they are to follow. 
8. A merchant ship which, alter receipt of such 
a pass, does not follow the course indicated therein 
will be liable to capture. 
9. If no Information reaches one of Eis Majesty’s 
Principal Secretaries of State by the day and hour afore- 
mentioned to the effect that the treatment accorded to 
British merchant ships and their cargoes which were 
in the ports of the enemy at the date of the outbreak 
of hostilities, or which subsequently entered them, is, 
in bis opinion, not less favourable than that accorded 
to enemy merchand ships by Articles 3 to 8 of this 
Order, every enemy merchant ship which, on the out 
break of hostilities, was in any port to which this 
Order applies, and also every enemy merchant ship 
which cleared from its last port before the decla- 
ration of war, but which, with no knowledge of the 
war enters a port to which this Order applies, shall, 
together with the cargo on board thefeof, be liable to 
capture and shall be brought before the Prize Court 
forthwith for adjudication. 
10. In the event of Information reaching one of 
Eis Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State that British 
merchant ships which cleared from their last port 
before the declaration of war, but are raet with by 
the enemy at sea after the outbreak of hostilities, are 
allowed to continue their voyage without interference 
with either the ship or the cargo, or after capture 
are released with or without proceedings for adjudi 
cation in the Prize Court, or are to be detained during 
the war or requisitioned in lieu of condemnation as 
prize, he shalUnotify the Lords Commissioners of the 
Admiralty accordingly, and shall publish a notification 
thereof in the „London Gazette“, and in that event, 
but not otherwise, enemy merchant ships which cleared 
from their last port before the declaration of war, and 
are captured after the outbreak of hostilities and 
brought before the Prize Courts for adjudication, shall 
be released or detained or requisitioned in such cases 
and upon such terms as may he directed in the said 
notification in the „London Gazette“. 
11. Neutral cargo, other than contraband of war, 
on board an enemy merchant ship which is not allo 
wed to depart from a port to which this Order applies, 
shall be released. 
12. In accordance with the provisions ofChapterlll 
of the Convention relative to certain Restrictions on 
the Exercise of the Right of Capture in Maritime War, 
signed at The Eague on the 18th October, 1907, an 
undertaking must, whether the merchant ship is allo 
wed to depart or not, be given in writing by each of 
the officers and members of the crew of such vessels 
who is of enemy nationality, that he will not, after 
the conclusion of the voyage for which the pass is 
issued, engage while hostilities last in any Service con 
nected with the Operation of the war. If any such 
officer is of neutral nationality. an undertaking must 
be given in writing that he will not serve, after the 
conclusion of the voyage for which the pass is issued, 
on any enemy ship while hostilities last. No under 
taking is to be required from members of the crew 
who are of neutral nationality. 
Officers or members of the crew dcclining to give 
the undertakings required by this Article will be 
detained as prisoners of war. 
And the Lords Commissioners of Bis Majesty’s 
Treasury, the Lord Commissioners of the Admiralty, 
and each of Eis Majesty’s Principal Secretaries of State, 
and all Governors, Officers, and Anethorities whom it 
may concern are to give the necessary diroctions 
herein as to them may respectively apportain. 
Notification of the Secretary of State for 
Foreign Affairs as to the Treatment accorded 
to British Merchant Ships and their Cargoes 
in German Ports. 
On the night of August 4th, 1914, the Secretary 
of State received the sollewing notice from thu German 
Ambassador: — 
„The Imperial Government will keep 
merchant vessels flying the British flag internet! 
in German harbours, but will liberale them if 
the Imperial Government receive a counter 
undertaking from the British Government within 
forty-eight hours.“ 
On August öth a copy of the Order in Council 
issued on August 4th as to the treatment of enemy 
merchant vessels in British ports at the date of the 
outbreak of hostilities was communicatod to the Am 
bassador of the United States in London, who was 
then in Charge of German Interests in this country, 
with a request that he would be so good as to cause 
enquiry to be made of the German Government as to 
whether the term of Articles III. to VIEL of the 
Order in Council constituted an undertaking of the 
nature the German Government required, and under 
which they would liberale merchant vessels flying the 
British flag interned in German harbours. 
On August 7th a communication was received from 
the United States Embassy that the United States 
Minister at Stockholm had sent the following telegram 
signed by the United States Ambassadpr at Berlin : — 
„Please state if England has issued Procla- 
mation that she gives permission to enemy ships 
to leave British ports until midnight, August 14tb. 
If this is so, Germany will issue eorrosponding 
Orders. Reply through German Legation, Stock 
holm.“