Mr. Hill to Mr. Powell.
Washington, July 30, 1902.
Sir: I have received and communicated to the Secretary of the Navy your two telegrams of the 26th instant.
The Department replied by telegraph on July 26.
I quote the pertinent portion of the instruction referred to:
The expedient of declaring a revolted national vessel to be a “pirate” has often been resorted to among the Spanish-American countries in times of civil tumult, and on late occasions in Europe. At the time of the Murcian rising, 1873, the insurgents at Cartagena seized the Spanish ironclads in harbor and cruised with them along the coast, committing hostilities. The Spanish Government proclaimed the vessels pirates, and invited their capture by any nation. A German naval commander then in the Mediterranean did in fact capture one of the revolted ships and claimed it as a German prize, but his act was disavowed. The rule is, simply, that a “pirate” is a natural enemy of all men, to be repressed by any, and wherever found, while a revolted vessel is the enemy only of the power against which it acts. While it may be outlawed, so far as the outlawing state is concerned, no foreign state is bound to respect or execute such outlawry to the extent of treating the vessel as a public enemy of mankind. Treason is not piracy, and the attitude of foreign governments toward the offender may be negative merely, so far as demanded by a proper observance of the principle of neutrality.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.