The Counselor for the Department of State to the British Ambassador (Spring Rice)
Washington, October 27, 1914.
My dear Mr. Ambassador: I have received your note of. October 24 relative to the action of the firm of J. J. Moore & Company of San Francisco in supplying coal to the port of Guaymas, Mexico, for the use of German cruisers. As pointed out in the Department’s statement of September 19,1 though a port of another neutral nation is being used as a base for the naval operations of a belligerent, this Government does not deem itself under obligation to prevent the shipment of naval supplies to that port. The duty of preventing an unneutral act rests entirely upon the neutral state whose territory is being used as such a base.
In this relation I desire to call your attention to a report from J. J. Moore & Company that the British ship Lowther Range, under time charter to that company with a cargo of coal belonging to that company shipped from Newcastle, Australia, and consigned to the Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico for its own use, was seized off the port of Guaymas, Mexico, October 11 by the British cruiser New castle, and, after part of the coal had been removed by the cruiser, was sent with a prize crew on board to Esquimalt, British Columbia. The company alleges that the loss of time due to the seizure alone has caused them a loss of over $30,000, and that prior to clearing from Newcastle the customs authorities there demanded and were given the name of the cargo, the name of the consignee, and destination of the cargo.
The Department has difficulty in perceiving cause for this seizure of a neutral cargo apparently destined in good faith to a neutral [Page 629] port, and therefore feels obliged to request that, if the facts are as stated, the cargo be released and that the owners be compensated for the losses sustained by them as a result of the action of the British cruiser1
I am [etc.]