So, in 1869, the United States were desirous of concluding a general convention which should assimilate the destruction of cables in the high seas to piracy, and should continue to be in force in time of war.

The Brussels conference of 1874 avoided any mention of "cables sous-marins." The moral of all that has been written upon this subject is obviously that drawn by Mr.Charles Bright--viz.

"the urgent necessity of a system of cables connecting the British Empire by direct and independent means--_i.e._ without touching on foreign soil." I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T.E.HOLLAND.
Oxford, June 3 (1897).
* * * * * SECTION 7 _Destruction of Neutral Prizes_ A British ship, the _Knight Commander_, bound from New York to Yokohama and Kobe, was stopped on July 23, 1904, by a Russian cruiser, and as her cargo consisted largely of railway material, was considered to be engaged in carriage of contraband.

Her crew and papers were taken on board the cruiser, and she was sent to the bottom by fire from its guns.
The reasons officially given for this proceeding were that: "The proximity of the enemy's port, the lack of coal on board the vessel to enable her to be taken into a Russian port, and the impossibility of supplying her with coal from one of the Russian cruisers, owing to the high seas running at the time, obliged the commander of the Russian cruiser to sink her." The Russian Regulations as to Naval Prize, Art.

21, allowed a commander "in exceptional cases, when the preservation of a captured vessel appears impossible on account of her bad condition or entire worthlessness, the danger of her recapture by the enemy, or the great distance or blockade of ports, or else on account of danger threatening the ship which has made the capture, or the success of her operations," to burn or sink the prize.
The Japanese Regulations, Art.