1. This appeal is by the plaintiffs in a suit for damages for conversion which has been decreed in part by the court below.

2. The plaintiffs represent a firm of merchants carrying on business at Mattancherry in Cochin. They were the consignees of various goods under separate contracts of sea carriage between Bombay and Cochin, through M/s. The New Dholera Steamship Co., Ltd., Bombay and the Malabar Steamship Co., Ltd.. Bombay. These two carriers have their common agent in the sole defendant in the case, viz, Messrs. The National Steamship Co., Bombay, with registered office at Mattancherry, and represented by Ratansee Panchan, residing at Mattancherry. According to the plaintiffs, there was failure on the part of the defendant to deliver 4 specific lots of goods covered by four separate Bills of lading, even though the goods had arrived and been stored in the defendant's godown, along with the rest. Two of these lots which consisted of copper circles and brass circles arrived in single voyage on 10-8-1947 by S. S. Jayabrahma engaged by the Dholera Steamship Co. The other two lots arrived on 29-6-1947 and 16-7-1947 by S. S. Janaki, of the Malabar Steamship Co., in two vo