(First direction.—Second
bureau.—Movements.)
Rules to be observed in regard to vessels of
belligerents.
Gentlemen: By its declaration of the
10th of June, 1861, inserted in the Moniteur, the Emperor’s
government has made known the principles which serve as a basis
to the nutrality it intended to observe in the war which
ensanguines North America.
Since then, these principles have received their application as
well in our colonies as in the ports of the mother country.
But the continuation of the war having led the belligerents to
carry the theatre of maritime hostilities into the neighboring
waters of the neutral states of Europe, and brought them to seek
in our ports the means of repairs or of provisioning, the
Emperor’s government has deemed it useful to remind you again of
the rules to be observed in order to maintain its neutrality,
conformably to public law and to the traditions of the French
marine, and to determine consequently on the treatment which is
to be applied without distinction of flag to the vessels of the
belligerents.
You will therefore have to attend to the strict execution of the
following regulations:
1st. No vessel-of-war or belligerent privateer will be allowed to
stay more than twenty-four hours in a port of the empire or of
the French colonies, or in the adjacent waters, except in the
case of a forced putting-in on account of bad weather, of
injuries, or of exhaustion of provisions, necessary to the
safety of the voyage.
2d. In no case can a belligerent make use of a French port for a
purpose of war, or for there supplying himself with arms or
munitions of war, or for there executing, under pretext of
repairs, works whose object is to increase his military
power.
3d. There can only be furnished to a vessel-of-war or belligerent
privateer the provisions, stores, and means of repair necessary
for the subsistence of her crew and for the safety of her
voyage.
4th. No vessel-of-war or belligerent privateer, allowed to take
in provisions or to make repairs in a French port, can prolong
her stay there beyond twenty-four hours after her supplies shall
have been shipped and her repairs finished, except in the case
hereinafter provided for.
5. When vessels-of-war, privateers, or merchant vessels of the
two belligerent parties are found together in a French port,
there shall be an interval of not less than twenty-four hours
between the departure of any vessel of one of the belligerents
and the subsequent departure of any vessel-of-war or privateer
of the other belligerent. This delay shall be extended, in case
of need, by order of the maritime authority, as long as may be
necessary.
You will take care to make known the foregoing regulations to
every vessel of either of the belligerents which may come into
the ports, roadsteads, or waters subject to your command.
Accept, gentlemen, the assurance of my very distinguished
consideration.
COUNT P. DE CHASSELOUP-LAUBAT, Minister Secretary of State of Marine and of
Colonies.
(Inserted in the official bulletin, 1864.)
