Whether or no hostilities had previously occurred upon the mainland, I hold that the acts of the Japanese commander in boarding the _Kowshing_ and threatening her with violence in case of disobedience to his orders were acts of war.
In the second place, the _Kowshing_ had notice of the existence of a war, at any rate from the moment when she received the orders of the Japanese commander.
The _Kowshing_, therefore, before the first torpedo was fired, was, and knew that she was, a neutral ship engaged in the transport service of a belligerent.

(Her flying the British flag, whether as a _ruse de guerre_ or otherwise, is wholly immaterial.) Her liabilities, as such ship, were twofold:-- 1.

Regarded as an isolated vessel, she was liable to be stopped, visited, and taken in for adjudication by a Japanese Prize Court.

If, as was the fact, it was practically impossible for a Japanese prize crew to be placed on board of her, the Japanese commander was within his rights, in using any amount of force necessary to compel her to obey his orders.
2.

As one of a fleet of transports and men-of-war engaged in carrying reinforcements to the Chinese troops on the mainland, the _Kowshing_ was clearly part of a hostile expedition, or one which might be treated as hostile, which the Japanese were entitled, by the use of all needful force, to prevent from reaching its destination.
The force employed seems not to have been in excess of what might lawfully be used, either for the arrest of an enemy's neutral transport or for barring the progress of a hostile expedition.