Ships violating a blockade are, of course, confiscable; but the Japanese do not, as your Correspondent seems to have been informed, make the existence of a blockade conditional upon its having been "notified to the Consuls of all States in the blockaded port." Commanders are, no doubt, instructed to notify the fact, "as far as possible, to the competent authorities and the Consuls of the neutral Powers within the circumference of the blockade"; but that is a very different thing. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T. E. HOLLAND. The Athenæum, March 10 (1905). JAPANESE PRIZE LAW Sir,--Let me assure your correspondent upon Marine Insurance that I have been familiar, ever since its promulgation, with the Japanese prize law of 1894, quoted by him as authority for statements made in your issue of March 10, the misleading character of which I felt bound to point out in a letter of the same date. All the topics mentioned by him on that occasion, and to-day, are, however, regulated, not by that law, but by notifications and instructions issued from time to time during 1904. I make it my business not only to be authoritatively informed on such matters, but also to see that my information is up to date. I am, Sir, your obedient servant, T. E. HOLLAND. Oxford, March 15 (1905). _(Continuous Voyages)_ The opinion expressed in the letter which immediately follows, that the American decisions, applying to carriage of contraband the doctrine of "continuous voyages," seem to be "demanded by the conditions of modern commerce, and might well be followed by a British prize Court," was referred to by Lord Salisbury in a despatch of January 10, 1900, to be communicated to Count von Bülow, with reference to the seizure of _Bundesrath_. _Parl. Papers_, Africa, No. 1 (1900), p. 19. The distinction, drawn in the same letter, between "carriage of contraband" and "enemy service," which has sometimes been lost sight of, was established in the case of _Yangtsze Insurance Association_ v. _Indemnity Mutual Marine Company_, [1908] K.B. 910, in which it was held by Bigham, J., that the transport of military officers of a belligerent State, as passengers in a neutral ship, is not a breach or a warranty against contraband of war in a policy of marine insurance. The carriage of enemy despatches will no longer be generally treated as "enemy service" since The Hague Convention, No. xi. of 1907, ratified by most of the Powers, including Great Britain, on November 27, 1909, by Art. 1 provides that, except in the case of breach of blockade, "the postal correspondence of neutrals or _belligerents_, whether of _an official_ or a private character, found on board a _neutral_ or enemy ship on the High Seas is inviolable."