27 FEBRUARY 1915, Page 1

The 'Dacia,' according to the Exchange Telegraph Com- pany, is

now four hundred miles west of Land's End, and no doubt by the time these pages are in our readers' hands we shall hear more of the vessel. It may be remem- bered that the ' Dacia' originally belonged to the Hamburg- Amerika Company, but was acquired by Mr. Breitung, an American citizen of German extraction, in order to take cotton to Hamburg under the American flag. The transfer of the ship, under the well-known principles of international law, was not admitted by the Allied Governments as being in any sense valid, and it was announced by them that if the vessel put to sea and was captured she would be brought before a Prize Court. The British Government at the same time stated that if the cargo were proved to consist entirely of cotton owned by American citizens it would, in the event of the condemnation of the vessel by a Prize Court, guarantee the purchase of the cargo and would forward it to Rotterdam.