Minister Beaupré to the Secretary of State.

No. 370.]

Sir: In reference to the Department’s telegraphic instruction of the 14th instant, and to my No. 366, of the 13th instant, in regard to the circular note, to the powers signatory to the international prize court convention of October 18, 1907, which the department desires this Government to send, I have the-honor to report that, upon receipt of the department’s telegram, yesterday, I addressed to the minister for foreign affairs of the Netherlands the note of which I enclose copy, embodying the purport of your telegram.

I am, etc.,

A. M. Beaupré.
[Inclosure.]

Minister Beaupré to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s courteous note of the 10th instant, directions du protocole et politique No. 9197, in reply to my No. 298, of the 2d instant, in which your excellency has expressed the approval of the Netherlands Government of the proposed protocol additional to the convention relative to the establishment of an international court of prize signed at The Hague October 18, 1907. At the same time, your excellency states that the Queen’s Government finds it preferable that this proposed protocol be submitted to the powers signatory of the prize court convention by the Government of the United States of America, without the intermediation of the Government of the Netherlands, although the latter Government has no objections, if the United States think best, to acting as intermediary. Your excellency also makes clear to me that it would scarcely be materially possible to set, as the date for the signing of the proposed protocol, a date so early as the 25th proximo, and suggests that, in view of the fact that the Netherlands Government itself would be unable to ratify the protocol before the 30th of June, the date tentatively mentioned in my note, a day after the 15th of next September be set for the signing of the protocol, and that the deposit of the ratifications, both of the protocol and of the convention relative to the establishment of an international court of prize, be postponed to a date to be fixed later; in any case, however, before June 30, 1911.

I have to advise your excellency that I at once communicated both the contents of this note and the purport of my conversation with your excellency of the 12th instant to my Government by telegraph. I am now instructed by my Government to modify my note of the 2d instant in the following particulars: The Government of the United States desires to reiterate its request that the Queen’s Government transmit the proposed additional protocol, a copy of which was inclosed in my No. 298 of the 2d instant, to the signatories of the convention relative to the establishment of an international court of prize, together with an appropriate circular note addressed to the powers concerned. A date suggested by your excellency for the signature of the additional protocol, either the 15th of next September or a day near that date, would be entirely satisfactory to my Government. While my Government prefers an early date for the deposit of the ratifications, that the prize court may be enabled to go into operation during the coming year, and while my Government hopes that some day in January or, at latest, February of next year may be set for the deposit of the ratifications, I am instructed to defer wholly to the preferences of the Queen’s Government in the matter of the date to be agreed upon for the deposit of the ratifications of the additional protocol and of the convention relative to the establishment of an international court of prize. I only venture to suggest to your excellency that it might serve a practical purpose to name, at least tentatively, in the circular note a date which may seem appropriate to your excellency for the deposit of the ratifications of the two instruments. In other respects my note of the 2d instant requires no modifications to meet the views of your excellency’s Government.

With the hope that this arrangement of time may be pleasing to your excellency, and that the Government of the Queen may be willing to serve as intermediary in this matter, I avail, etc.,

A. M. Beaupré.