Mr. White to Mr. Hay.
London , December 19, 1902 .
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 1002, I have the honor to inclose herewith copies of your telegraphic instructionsa relative to the nature of the proposed blockade, and of my replya to the same, from which you will see that the term “warlike blockade” must have been used by Germany in contradistinction to the so-called “pacific blockade,” to which that country wanted Great Britain to assent, but the latter declined to do so. You will also observe from the telegram I sent you on the 18th instant that His Majesty’s Government agree with ours in thinking that “there can be no such thing as a pacific blockade,” and that a blockade does involve a state of war, but that “it is hoped that these operations shall be as little inconvenient to neutral powers as they can possibly be made.”
I have, etc.,