Letter from WSC [First Lord of the Admiralty] to [? F E Smith, later 1st Lord Birkenhead], on a speech by [Smith] on the abolition of the right of capture of private property at sea. WSC states that in a war with Germany the Admiralty would wish to bring all German trade to a standstill by preventing all German ships from leaving or returning to German ports; he proposes that all captured German ships should be held till the end of the war, and treated exactly as prisoners of war. WSC asks how this struck [Smith] in law, and how it could be "expressed in proper legal jargon". [Carbon copy].