Office of the Historian

Mr. Choate to Mr. Hay.

American Embassy, London, January 5, 1900.
No. 227.]

Sir: I have the honor to report that since my dispatch No. 226, of January 2, I received your cipher cable of the 3d [2d], and on the same day I had an interview with Lord Salisbury, and on the 4th instant I sent you an account of it by cipher cable. It was not until after my interview, however, that I received by mail your instructions Nos. 262 and 263, of December 21, with the documents annexed, relating to the shipments of Flint, Eddy & Co. by the Mashona and Maria, and of Mr. R. W. Geldart by the Beatrice. The information conveyed by these documents is not as full as it might be, as Flint, Eddy & Co. do not inclose copies of their bills of lading, and Mr. Geldart sends neither invoice nor bill of lading.

By their aid, however, and with a view of giving Lord Salisbury such information as I had received, I have to-day prepared and sent to him a note referring to our interview, and adding such details as I had, of which note I inclose a copy. I have assumed that these very small shipments are but a small part of the goods belonging to American citizens which are involved in the seizures, and have made my request for restitution broad enough to cover all there are.

I have, etc.,

Joseph H. Choate.
[Inclosure.]

Mr. Choate to the Marquis of Salisbury.

American Embassy, London, January 4, 1900.

My Lord: Since our interview of yesterday, in which I stated the views of my Government in regard to the seizure by H. M. S. Partridge of certain flour shipped by American citizens on the British vessel Mashona for Delagoa Bay, I have received certain papers throwing further light on the case.

Your Lordship will remember that upon the understanding which you confirmed that the Mashona was seized by the British authorities for a violation of the municipal laws of Great Britain, for trading with the enemy, and that the seizure or detention of the flour was incidental to the seizure of the vessel, my Government’s view was that the flour, to which no such offense could be imputed, could not under the circumstances of the case, as understood by it, be admitted to be subject to capture because not contraband of war, and I therefore asked for its prompt restitution to the American owners.

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Your lordship seemed much impressed by the supposed fact that the flour was marked Z. A. R., which might mean the South African Republic, but you courteously took my request under consideration. I also represented to your lordship that if the seizure had been made on account of the flour carried by the ship my Government could not recognize the validity of the seizure under any belligerent right of capture of provisions and other goods shipped by American citizens in ordinary course of trade to the port of a neutral State. So that in any aspect of the case, so far as the circumstances have been communicated to my Government, nothing appeared to justify the seizure of the goods complained of. The seizure not being of the flour as contraband, your lordship very naturally refrained for the time being from formulating your views on the subject of provisions as contraband.

The papers which. I have now received show that Flint, Eddy & Co., a very reputable firm of merchants, doing business in New York, American citizens, shipped on the Mashona, property belonging to them, consisting of 400 bags of flour, 5 cases canned soup, and 25 cases Quaker oats, marked on the invoice F. B. & Co., Delagoa Bay—no mark Z. A. R. appeared thereon—consigned to order and invoiced to F. Bridler & Co., a firm of merchants doing a large local business there, believed by the shippers to be a German firm and not citizens of either the Transvaal Republic or the Orange Free State. The value of this particular invoice is not large, but the interruption to the business of the shippers is very serious.

The same firm shipped on the Maria, which your lordship understood to be in the same category as the Mashona—a British vessel, seized for a violation of the municipal law of Great Britain, for trading with the enemy—65 cases canned goods and libbys, 40 cases lard, 20 bags peas and beans, and 1 case containing lemon squeezer and nail pullers, and 1 case hardware—all marked on the invoice in the same way, F. B. & Co., Delagoa Bay, no mark Z. A. R. appearing thereon, invoiced to the same firm here described as of Lourenço Marquez, and also consigned to order.

These goods are drawn against, and are invoiced for account and risk of the consignees, but the goods not being delivered, the loss will naturally rest upon the American shippers, the actual owners thereof.

Messrs. Flint, Eddy & Co. shipped other goods belonging to them on the Mashona for account of Fowlie & Boden, London, of which I have no particulars, but they are probably included in the seizures, and there may be other American shippers having goods on the Mashona and Maria, and also involved. I of course make the same request for the restitution of Flint, Eddy & Co.’s goods by the Maria as for those upon the Mashona.

By the Beatrice, according to my information just received, Mr. R. W. Geldart, of New York City, an American citizen, shipped an invoice of beer and lard belonging to him to a Portuguese firm in Lourenco Marquez, and that the same, by order of Her Majesty’s Government, has been discharged into lighters at East London without Mr. Geldart’s consent, whereby the liability of the ship and of the insurers of the goods ceased, and in respect to this transaction I am instructed to request a statement of the facts and of the grounds for taking the cargo out of the ship. Mr. Geldart’s shipment was one of a series under a monthly order commencing last March.

Your lordship will be so kind as to regard my request for restitution to embrace all merchandise shipped by American citizens on the Mashona and Maria which may have been detained or seized, and as I receive further particulars I will transmit them to you.

I have, etc.,

Joseph H. Choate.