INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. 
right of belligerents to visit and search all neutral 
merchant ships, was affirmed by the British Prize Courts 
in several cases; and it was laid down by the Privy 
Council that search at sea in the late war was practically 
impossible, and that sending into port for search was 
almost universal.® French, Italian, Roumanian, and 
German Prize Courts maintained the same principle. 
An examination of the cases relating to Contraband set 
forth in the following pages, and more especially when 
they are read in detail in the Law Reports, will show 
the impossibility of relying on methods found sufficient 
in the days of sailing ships of small tonnage. But safe- 
guards against abuse of this right are undoubtedly 
required. In British Prize procedure aggrieved neutrals 
can apply to the Court for damages where there has 
been unreasonable diversion, undue delay, or unnecessary 
interference with the ship’s voyage, and in a certain 
number of cases damages were awarded. But in the 
case of some other Prize Courts, unless the vessel is 
actually seized in Prize, the neutral owner can only invoke 
the assistance of his Government to obtain redress by 
diplomatic means. Dr. Colombos gives some examples 
of the means which associations of shipowners and 
merchants took to reduce the inconvenience occasioned 
by visit and search under the new conditions. Means 
must be devised to remove friction between neutrals 
and belligerents in this matter, and the precedents of 
the late war will prove valuable. The suggestion made 
for certificates to be issued by neutral Governments 
evidencing the innocence of the cargo will not, in my 
opinion, prove acceptable to all States. The system of 
6 The Zamora, [1916] A. C. 77; The Elve and The Bernisse, 3 B. & 
GC. P. C. 517. 
GQ rz, 
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ok. h