of lard consigned to Copenhagen after the outbreak of war upon the four vessels now before the court.

Effect of war on

The average annual quantity of lard imported into Denmark during the three years 1911-1913 from all sources was 1,459,000 pounds. The quantity of lard consigned to Copenhagen on these four ships alone was 19,252,000 pounds. Comparing these quantities, the result is that these vessels were carrying toward Copenhagen within less than a month more than thirteen times the quantity of lard which had been imported annually to Denmark for each of the three years before the war. To illustrate further the change effected by the war, commerce. it was given in evidence that the imports of lard from the United States of America to Scandinavia (or, more accurately, to parts of Europe other than the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy) during the months of October and November, 1914, amounted to 50,647,849 pounds as compared with 854,856 pounds for the same months in 1913-showing an increase for the two months of 49,792,993 pounds; or in other words the imports during those two months in 1914 were nearly sixty times those for the corresponding months of 1913.

destination.

One more illustration may be given from statistics which were given in evidence for one of the claimants (Hammond & Co. and Swift & Co.): In the five months August-December, 1913, the exports of lard from the United States of America to Germany were 68,664,975 pounds. During the same five months in 1914 they had fallen to a mere nominal quantity, 23,800 pounds. On Inference as to the other hand, during those periods, similar exports from the United States of America to Scandinavian countries (including Malta and Gibraltar, which would not materially affect the comparison) rose from 2,125,579 pounds to 59,694,447 pounds. These facts give practical certainty to the inference that an overwhelming proportion (so overwhelming as to amount to almost the whole) of the consignments of lard in the four vessels we are dealing with was intended for, or would find its way into, Germany. These, however, are general considerations, important to bear in mind in their appropriate place; but not in any sense conclusive upon the serious questions of consecutive voyages of hostile quality, and of hostile destination, which are involved before it can be determined whether the goods seized are confiscable as prize.

Details as to ships and cargoes.

The dates of sailing and capture have been given with an intimation that they may have a bearing upon the law applicable to the cases.

The Alfred Nobel, the Bjornsterjne Bjornson, and the Fridland started on their voyages in the interval between the making of the two orders in council of August 20 and October 29. The Kim commenced her voyage after the latter order came into force.

By the proclamation of August 4 all the goods now claimed (other than the rubber and the hides) were declared to be conditional contraband. The cargoes of rubber seized were laden on the Fridland and the Kim. Rubber was declared conditional contraband on September 21, 1914, and absolute contraband on October 29. Accordingly the rubber on the Fridland was conditional contraband; and that on the Kim was absolute contraband. The hides were laden on the Kim. Hides were declared conditional contraband on September 21, 1914. No contention was made on behalf of the claimants that the goods were not to be regarded as conditional or absolute contraband, in accordance with the respective proclamations affecting them; that is to say, it was admitted that the goods partook of the character of conditional or absolute contraband under the said proclamations, and were to be dealt with accordingly.

The law can best be discussed and can only be applied after ascertaining the facts. The details relating to the ships and their cargoes which it has been necessary to examine are very voluminous. I must try to summarize them for the purposes of this judgment, in order to make it intelligible in principle, and in the results. To attempt to give even a moderate proportion of the details would tend to bewildering confusion.

The number of separate bills of lading covering the cargoes on the four vessels is about 625.

Four large American firms were consignors of goods on each of the four vessels; and a fifth on two of them.

According to the figures given to the court, those five American firms were consignors of lard and meat products to the following extent:

These figures I accept as substantially correct. They were given by the law officers of the Crown. The other figures in my judgment I am responsible for.

Those portions of the cargoes which have been released, and those which have not been claimed, will be dealt with in a separate judgment. There is some overlapping, as some parts of the cargoes have been claimed by the consignors, and also by some alleged vendees. For these and other reasons some corrections in the figures which follow may become necessary; but they are substantially correct as they stand in the various documents, and as they were dealt with at the hearing; and certainly sufficiently accurate for the purpose of determining all questions relating to the rights of the Crown to condemnation, or of the various claimants to release.

An analysis of the claims shows the following results:

I. MORRIS & Co. (WITH STERN & Co.).

Direct claims by these companies to goods laden on the Pounds. four ships amounting to....

Other subclaims by claimants who allege that they had bought and had become owners of goods consigned by the above companies:

(1) Pay & Co.-Goods on the A. Nobel and the B. Pounds.

5, 176, 327

[The detailed statement of other claims is omitted.]

It will be convenient to investigate the cases of these shippers first in this order, both as regards the Alfred Nobel and the other three steamers, upon all of which these two companies were heavy consignors.

European

agents.

AS TO MORRIS & Co.'s CLAIM.

This meat-packing company of Chicago and New York at the beginning of the war had a large business with Germany, which they carried on, at the Europe end, at Hamburg. They had in their employ at Hamburg two persons named McCann and Fry. Fry was their manager. They appear to have had an agent also at Copenhagen of the name of Conrad Bang. The transactions relating to their shipments of between six-and-a-half and seven million pounds of products on the four vessels were carried through by McCann and Fry, and not by Bang. Not long after the war began McCann and Fry left Hamburg and took up their quarters at Copenhagen. McCann was named in hundreds of the bills of lading in which Morris & Co. were the shippers as the "party to be notified." He was so named in all, with a few exceptions which are insignificant.

He had no business at Copenhagen or in Denmark before the war. He had apparently no office in Copenhagen.

His address was "the Bristol Hotel."

The instructions to him from Morris & Co. as to the change from Hamburg to Copenhagen, and as to the initiation and progress of the business transactions carried on either at or through Copenhagen, must have been in writing unless he visited America, or some one from America visited him. No such instructions were produced in evidence and no explanation was given of them. Not a single letter passing between Morris & Co. and McCann or Fry was produced. A few telegrams were in evidence, but that was due to their having been interIntercepted tel- cepted by the British censor and they were put before the court by the procurator general. McCann did not even make an affidavit in explanation of his own part of the transactions. Nor did Fry. Affidavits from them, if they comprised a complete and truthful statement of the facts within their knowledge, would have been of value and assistance to the court.

egrams.

On November 28 McCann and Fry together formed a company in Copenhagen under the name of the "Dansk Fed. Import Kompagnie." Its capital was only about 1201. (2,000 kronen); but it imported lard and meat by the end of the year (i.e., in about five weeks) to the value of about 280,0001. (5,000,000 kronen). Later on, McCann is cabling from Copenhagen to Morris & Co. in New York, "Don't ship any lard Copenhagen, export prohibited."

Afterwards, goods like lard and fat backs were consigned by Morris & Co. to Genoa-Italy had not then joined in the war.

The evidence put forward in support of the direct claim of Morris & Co. was an affidavit of Mr. Harry A. Timmins, which was sworn in Chicago on May 27, 1915. Mr. Timmins is the assistant secretary and treasurer of the company. The case which he there makes is that the goods had been sent to Copenhagen in the ordinary course of the business of the company in Denmark itself.

evidence.

It is advisable to set out the main paragraphs verbatim: "2. The claimant (Morris & Co.) has for many years shipped considerable quantities of its products to Den-Morris & Co.'s mark, both directly to Copenhagen and through adjacent branch houses. The sale of such products for several years was made either through the Morris Packing Company, a corporation of Norway, or an individual salaried employee of the claimant. Said Morris Packing Company or said salaried individual employee of claimant always had strict instructions from the claimant to confine sales to Denmark, Scandinavian countries, and Russia, and not to sell to any other countries owing to the fact that the claimant has agents in other countries, and it is essential that said agent's operations be strictly confined to his own district.

"4. In the month of October, 1914, the claimant shipped on board the Norwegian steamship Alfred Nobel [the paragraphs in the affidavits relating to the other three steamships are identical] the goods particulars of which are set out in the schedule to this affidavit. The whole of said goods was shipped 'to order' Morris & Company, notify claimant's agent in Copenhagen (said agent being a native-born citizen of the United States of America) for sale on consignment in the agent's own district in the ordinary course of business. The standing instructions to the agent that no sales were to be made outside the agent's district were never withdrawn by the claimant."

The deponent refrains from giving any particulars or even summaries of the "considerable" quantities of the company's products shipped to Copenhagen or Denmark for the years before the war; he does not even say what the "products" shipped were; but the impression clearly intended to be produced was that the goods on the four ships in question were sent in the Denmark business, and