Mr. Hay to Mr. Choate.
Washington, January 2, 1900.
[Mr. Hay states that from Mr. Choate’s telegram of the 1st instant it is inferred by the Department that the seizure of the Mashona was for violating British municipal law in trading with the enemy and that [Page 540] the seizure of the ship carried with it the flour merely as incidental. This suggests that the seizure was not on account of the flour itself which, as the circumstances of the case are understood by this Government, could not be considered contraband of war, and therefore not subject to capture.
Mr. Choate is instructed to request prompt restitution of the goods to American owners if the vessel was seized on account of its violation of the laws of Great Britain, as for trading with the enemy; but if the seizure was on account of the flour, he is to represent to the British Government that the United States Government could not recognize its validity under any belligerant right of capture of provisions and other goods shipped by American citizens in ordinary course of trade to a neutral port. Mr. Choate is also instructed to communicate to the Government of the United States at the earliest practicable moment the grounds of all the seizures; and that nothing appears to justify the seizure, as such, of the goods, so far as the Government of the United States has been advised by the shippers or by the Government of Great Britain.]