"The Admiralty Appeal Court yesterday confirmed the judgment of the Libau Prize Court justifying the capture and destruction of the British steamer Oldhamia, bound fur Hong-kong with American oil. She was taken by the cruiser Oleg of Admiral Rozhdestvensky's fleet off Formosa on the night of May 18, 1905, and a fortnight later, while proceeding to Vladivostok, struck on the Kurile reef and was burned by the prize crew to prevent her from falling into the hands of the Japanese. The Court disallowed a claim for damages by the captain and crew for the loss of their personal effects on the formal grounds that the claim had not been presented at the first hearing of the case. It allowed a claim of the Standard Oil Company to recover the cost of 200 empty kerosene cases. It confirmed the Libau verdict disallowing the claims of the Manchester and Salford Company, the owners of the vessel, for £61,580, and those of the Standard Oil Company for cargo consisting of 149,462 cases of kerosene, valued at $123,134 (£24,627).
"The circumstances of the capture were fully detailed at the trial before the Libau Prize Court on June 12, 1907. The arguments presented by Mr. Berlin, counsel for the plaintiffs, and the law officers of the Crown, bore first upon the prima facie evidence of the Oldhamia's destination and cargo, and secondly, on the point whether kerosene rightly came under the Russian declaration of contraband of war. It was admitted that the cargo was intended for Japan, but solely for commercial purposes. The principal legal adviser to the Admiralty submitted, however, that kerosene was now used also as a fuel for warships. Moreover, the vessel was considerably out of her course. The captain was unable to produce the charter-party or bills of lading, and one of the seamen declared that she carried guns at the bottom of the hold. Admiral Rozhdestvensky sent 300 sailors to displace the cargo in order to verity this statement, but they worked for two days without getting lower than the main deck. Mr. Berlin invoked the fact that the Procurator at Libau declined to recognize kerosene as contraband within the meaning of the Russian declaration, which specifically mentions naphtha. He argued at length on the question of conditional and absolute contraband of war. Upon these points the Russian and British views have been, and remain, at variance, as exemplified in all the prize cases connected with the late war.
"The result of the present appeal, however onerous to the owners, cannot be regarded as unexpected. A member of the Embassy staff attended the proceedings in behalf of the British Government."
56. An Ambassadors Estate.
Musurus Pasha, the Turkish ambassador in London, died there in December 1907. In February, 1908, Mme Musurus took out letters of administration in England, and proceeded to pay the debts and the death duties payable in respect of the property in this country. The greater part of the ambassador's estate was situated in Turkey and Thessaly, and the only property in England was certain shares in companies. Two of the next-of-kin of the ambassador brought (in December 1908) an action to obtain the administration of his estate and also an injunction restraining Mme Musurus from removing any of the assets out of the jurisdiction of the English courts, or from dealing with them otherwise than in due course of administration.
SECTION XV
57. Dangers of Ballooning.
On Nov. 24th, 1908, the following paragraph appeared in the morning papers, dated from Breslau:
"While a balloon, belonging to the Silesian Aeronautic Club, was sailing along at about 100 mètres distance from the Russo-German frontier on Saturday over Krotoschin, Sarotschin, and Zockow, 15 shots were fired at it from Russian territory, probably by frontier Cossacks. The weather was fine and the German flag hung from the envelope. Nobody was hurt, only one shot striking a sandbag, and the balloon landed safely on German soil."