Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1898

Mr. Newel to Mr. Sherman.

Legation of the United States,
The Hague, April 26, 1898.

No. 100.]

Sir: I have the honor to append on the overleaf the text of my cablegram of this day advising that the Netherlands Government has officially announced its strict neutrality and warning to its subjects against participation in any privateering operation.

Hereto I annex a copy of the Official Gazette of the Netherlands (in duplicate) containing the forementioned announcement, together with a translation of the same.

I have, etc.,

Stanford Newel.

[Inclosure—Translation.]

Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

War having broken out between two powers friendly to the Netherlands, the Government of the Netherlands declares that it will observe the strictest neutrality toward the belligerents.

It reminds all citizens of the Netherlands, even those domiciled outside of Europe, that they must refrain from all acts that can be regarded as contrary to neutrality.

It directs their attention principally to acts prohibited by the rules of international law, that they may avoid participating in any way in the recruiting of soldiers, or in the fitting out of ships of war or privateers in the interest of the powers at war, and likewise to the danger connected with breaking an effective blockade, and with selling and furnishing munitions of war or other contraband goods to the belligerents, or conveying such articles to them. It further calls attention to the provisions of articles 100, 1°, 388, and 389, of the penal code, which are as follows:

• “Art. 100, 1°. Any person who, in case of a war in which the Netherlands are not concerned, shall intentionaliy commit any act whereby the neutrality of the State is endangered, or shall willfully violate any special provision for the maintenance of neutrality, adopted and proclaimed by the Government of the Netherlands, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding six years.
• “Art. 388. Any citizen of the Netherlands who shall accept letters of marque without the consent of the Government of the Netherlands, or shall engage in service as captain of a vessel which he knows to be intended for privateering without the permission of the Government of the Netherlands, shall be punished by imprisonment for a term not exceeding four years.
• “Art. 389. Any citizen of the Netherlands who shall engage in service as a member of the crew on board of a vessel, knowing it to be intended for privateering, or to be used for that purpose, without the permission of the Government of the Netherlands, or who shall voluntarily remain in service after he shall have learned that the vessel is intended or used for privateering, shall be imprisoned for a term not exceeding three years.”

The Government will tolerate no acts that can be considered as being in violation of the duties of a neutral state, and it warns all citizens of the Netherlands, wherever they may be domiciled, that they may rely upon its protection or its intervention in their behalf only in case they carefully abstain from any violation of neutrality.