ing the
claims of the Manchester and Salford Company, the owners of the vessel,
for L61,580, and those of the Standard Oil Company for cargo consisting
of 149,462 cases of kerosene, valued at $123,134 (L24,627).

"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