Mr. Choate to Mr. Hay.
London, February 24, 1900.
Sir: I have the honor to report that your cable instruction in reference to the seizure of the Sabine was duly received at the embassy on the 22d instant. As I had gone out of town in the morning, it did not reach my hands until the afternoon. I immediately called at the foreign office. Lord Salisbury was absent, but I saw the under secretary, [Page 595] Sir Thomas Sanderson, and stated to him the substance of your cable. My inquiry was the first information which the foreign office had received of the seizure, but he promised to institute immediate inquiry and to inform me of the result without delay. Whereupon, on the same afternoon, I cabled you. It was impossible for Lord Salisbury to receive me yesterday on account of a cabinet meeting and other engagements, but I have an appointment with him for this afternoon. In the meantime, however, cables from Port Elizabeth, published in the newspapers yesterday afternoon and this morning, announce the release of the Sabine, which I suppose closes the incident, except that I shall still see Lord Salisbury and impart to him your views in the hope that there may be no more such seizures. I suppose from the immediate release of the Sabine, that, as in the case of the Maria, it was a mistake on the part of the commander of the gunboat.
I have, etc.,