The Hague Convention quoted in the letter is that of 1899, but the same Art.

8 figures in the Convention of 1907.
The second and third of these letters relate to a question of English public law, growing out of the exercise of martial law in British territory in time of war.

One Marais, accused of having contravened the martial law regulations of May 1, 1901, was imprisoned in Cape Colony by military authority, and the Supreme Court at the Cape held that it had no authority to order his release.

The Privy Council refused an application for leave to appeal against this decision, saying that "no doubt has ever existed that, when war actually prevails, the ordinary courts have no jurisdiction over the action of the military authorities"; adding that "the framers of the Petition of Right knew well what they meant when they made a condition of peace the ground of the illegality of unconstitutional procedure" (_Ex parte_ D.F.Marais, [1902] A.C.

109).