No. 2.
Mr. Hamilton to Mr.
Hammond.—(Received February 29.)
Treasury
Chambers,
February 29; 1864.
Sir: With reference to your letter of the
24th ultimo, I am commanded by the lords commissioners of her
Majesty’s treasury to transmit to you herewith a copy of a report,
dated 27th ultimo, from the commissioners of customs, and of a
letter from Mr. Price Edwards, collector of customs at Liverpool,
dated 26th ultimo, relating to a statement alleged to have been made
by him in regard to [Page 315] the
shipment of guns on board the ship Gibraltar, and I am to request
that you will state to Earl Russell, with reference to Mr. Edwards’s
letter, that it appears to this board to correct the wrong
interpretation put upon Mr. Edwards’s statement by Mr.
Klingender.
I am to observe that at the time of the conversation a clearance had
been refused to the Gibraltar, because it was supposed that guns
were about to be placed in her, not as merchandise, but as part of
her armament, and intended to be used by her in hostilities; the
refusal of the clearance being, however, only maintained pending
further explanation.
In this state of things Mr. Klingender inquired from Mr. Edwards
whether there would be any objection to the shipment of such guns to
New York.
The meaning attached to this question by Mr. Edwards appears to have
been that it related to guns shipped as merchandise, and not as part
of an armament of a vessel of war, and he accordingly replied that
there would be no objection, adding, that such shipments to New York
were of common occurrence.
As soon as her Majesty’s government was satisfied that the guns in
question were not and could not be intended to form part of the
armament of the Gibraltar, the clearance was immediately
granted.
I am, &c.,
[Enclosure 1 in No.
2]
Mr. Gardner to Mr. Hamilton.
Custom-House,
February 27,
1864.
Sir: With reference to your letter of
the 25th instant, I am desired to transmit to you herewith, for
the information of the lords commissioners of her Majesty’s
treasury, copy of a report, with its enclosure, which the board
have received from their collector at Liverpool with respect to
a statement alleged to have been made by him concerning the
shipment of guns in the Gibraltar, and referred to in page 8 of
the Parliamentary Return, date 20th July, 1863, No. 461.
I am, &c.,
[Enclosure 2 in No.
2]
Mr. Edwards to the commissioners of customs.
Custom-House,
Liverpool,
February 26,
1864.
Honorable Sirs: I have this morning
received your order of the 25th instant, enclosing the copy of a
letter from the Foreign Office, dated the 24th instant,
respecting a statement alleged to have been made by me
concerning the shipment of guns on the Gibraltar, and directing
me to report whether the statement correctly represents what I
said to Messrs. Klingender & Co.; and if not, what I really
did say.
I beg to report that, pursuant to your order of the 15th June
last, I called upon Messrs. Klingender & Co. for an
explanation as to the necessity of and reason for placing the
guns and gun-carriages on board the ship in question, and placed
a stop in the clearing of the ship until further orders. In
consequence of this Mr. Klingender and his solicitor called upon
me, and in the course of conversation inquired whether there
would be any objection to the shipment of such guns to New York.
Before replying to the question I sent for the principal office
searcher, whose report I annex, and ascertained from him that
shipment [Page 316] of all kinds
of arms and guns to New York was continually going on, and I
then answered there would be no objection to the exportation of
such guns to New York.
I may add that shipments of this kind to New York have been
continually going on since the commencement of the war between
the federal and confederate States, and that on the 16th last
February I transmitted to Sir Thomas Fremantle, for the
information of the War Office, an account of the shipment of
arms, &c., to America, showing the quantity, description,
and value. No opinion was given by me as to the facility of
shipping arms, either for the federal or confederate government,
as I had nothing to do with reference to the ultimate
destination of the goods, but merely to reply to an inquiry
whether they could be shipped to New York; nevertheless the
inference was a very natural one, that if arms were forwarded to
New York they would be for the use of the federal government,
and hence possibly Mr. Klingender, whom I have not seen since,
and of whom I had no knowledge previously, may have formed his
conclusions. I herewith return the copy of the letter from the
Foreign Office.
[Enclosure 3 in No.
2.]
Mr. Goold to Mr. Edwards.
Searcher’s
Office,
February 26,
1864.
Sir: I beg to state that I remember
being asked by you, in the presence of Mr. Hall, attorney, who
had called to make inquiries respecting the shipment of two guns
on board the vessel Gibraltar, whether arms were shipped to New
York, to which I replied that they were.
An account of the number and value of rifles exported to ports in
the United States of America during the year 1862, and openly
cleared as arms, was forwarded to the board on the 16th
February, 1863.
I beg to add that arms and other munitions of war are still being
shipped to the United States.
H. GOOLD, Assistant
Surveyor.
[The other enclosures, with Mr. Adams’s No. 616, being
correspondence respecting the Alabama and the iron-clad
vessels at Birkenhead, the material portions thereof having
been published in the United States diplomatic
correspondence for 1863, are omitted.]
