f the ship precluded
the possibility of a search being made, and that it was immaterial
whether anything on board had a hostile destination ulterior to that of
the ship, appears rather surprising when it is seen to be almost the
opposite of the position taken in the seizures of ships bound for
Delagoa Bay in Portuguese territory. Japan on the other hand maintained
that the proceedings were entirely correct on the ground: (1) of the
probability that the _Gaelic_ might call at Amoy; (2) that the doctrine
of continuous voyages was applicable in connection with contraband
persons or goods if they were destined for the Chinese Government even
by way of Hongkong. This it will be remembered was practically the view
taken by Great Britain in the German seizures, though strenuously
opposed in this incident.

Professor Westlake, commenting upon the case of the _Gaelic_, states the
English view of the doctrine of continuous voyages as affecting: (1)
goods which are contraband of war and (2) persons who are contraband of
war, or analogues of contraband. Goods, he says, may be consigned to
purchasers in a neutral port, or to agents who are to offer them for
sale there, and in either case what further becomes of them will depend
on the consignee purchasers or on the purchasers from the agents. He
contends that "such goods before arriving at the neutral port have only
a neutral destination; on arriving there they are imported into the
stock of the country, and if they ultimately find their way to a
belligerent army or navy it will be in consequence of a new destination
given them, and this notwithstanding that the neutral port may be a
well-known market for the belligerent in question to seek supplies in,
and that the goods may notoriously have been attracted to it by the
existence of such a market."[48]

[Footnote 48: L.Q. Rev., Vol. 15, p. 25.]

It is obvious that this was the position taken by Germany and other
nations with reference to the interference with neutral commerce bound
for Delagoa Bay. Professor Westlake continues in regard to the Japanese
incident: "The consignors of the goods may have had an expectation that
they would reach the belligerent but not an intention to that effect,
for a person can form an intention only about his own acts and a
belligerent destination was to be impressed on the goods, if at all, by
other persons." Thus it is agreed, he says, "that the goods though of
the nature of contraband of war, an