Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 58 Part 2.djvu/471

 58 STAT.] AUSTRALIA-JURISDICTION OVER PRIZES-Nov. 10, 1942 May 10, 1944 out special authority from the court; and witnesses who have the rights of neutrals shall be discharged as soon as practicable. The prize commissioners shall also take depositions de bene esse of the prize crew and others, at the request of the district attorney, on interrogatories prescribed by the court. They shall also, as soon as any prize property comes within the district for adjudication, examine the same, and make an inventory thereof, founded on an actual examination, and report to the court whether any part of it is in a condition requiring immediate sale for the interests of all parties, and notify the district attorney thereof; and if it be neces- sary to the examination or making of the inventory that the cargo be unladen, they shall apply to the court for an order to the marshal to unlade the same, and shall, from time to time, report to the court anything relating to the condition of the property, or its custody or disposal, which may require any action by the court, but the custody of the property shall be in the marshal only. They shall also seasonably return into court, sealed and secured from inspection, the documents and papers which shall come to their hands, duly scheduled and numbered, and the other prepa- tory evidence, and the evidence taken de bene esse, and their own inventory of the prize property; and if the captured vessel, or any of its cargo or stores, are such as in their judgment may be useful to the United States in war, they shall report the same to the Secretary of the Navy." It will be noted that according to the terms of Section 3 of the above-mentioned Public Law 704 "the jurisdiction of prizes brought into the territorial waters of a cobelligerent shall not be exercised under authority of this Act nor shall prizes be taken or appropriated within such territorial waters for the use of the United States unless the Government having jurisdiction over such territorial waters con- sents to the exercise of such jurisdiction or to such taking or appro- priation." Section 7 of that Act states: "A cobelligerent of the United States which consents to the exercise of the jurisdiction herein conferred with respect to prizes of the United States brought into its territorial waters and to the taking or appropriation of such prizes within its territorial waters for the use of the United States shall be accorded, upon proclama- tion by the President of the United States, like privileges with respect to prizes captured under authority of such cobelligerent and brought into the territorial waters of the United States or taken or appropriated in the territorial waters of the United States for the use of such cobelligerent. Reciprocal recognition and full faith and credit shall be given to the jurisdiction acquired by courts of a cobelligerent hereunder and to all proceedings had or judgments rendered in exercise of such jurisdiction." In consideration of the provisions of Section 3, I should be grateful if you would inform me at the earliest possible date whether the Com- monwealth Government would consent to the exercise of the proposed jurisdiction or to the taking or appropriation of prizes as therein 1391 56 Stat. 746 . 50 U. 8. c., Supp. III, app. i 823 . M5Stat. 747 . 50 I. S. C.., Supp. III. app. 1 827.

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