File No. 800.115/1586a
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)
Washington, December 3, 1914.
[Telegram]
680. In re seizure of steamships Alfred Nobel , Björnson and Fridland and cargoes.
From reports from Consul General and information from shippers, Department concludes seizures and detention are not based [Page 354] on possession of facts tending to show cargoes were bound or destined to belligerents. Department therefore wishes to be advised at earliest moment if any ground of seizure asserted other than that shipments are “to order,” or “consignee not shown,” and, particularly, whether authorities have evidence aliunde that any of shipmenus involved are as matter of fact bound or intended for bellingerents and what particular shipments on any of said vessels are held as prize and sent to prize court.
The course of Great Britain in taking neutral vessels into British ports and detaining them for examination, including unloading of cargo in search of evidence of its contraband character, constitutes wrongful and unjustifiable detention of vessels and cargo to which this Government explicitly objects and for which it denies there is any international right.
Department reiterates its position, as stated in the case of the Kroonland respecting shipments “to order,” and holds that shipments of consignments to neutral countries, though to shipper’s order, being in usual course and in accordance with established custom of trade for protection of shipper against refusal of draft, cannot rightfully be seized as contraband in absence of facts tending to show that they are in fact destined for belligerents and as to the legality of the action of Great Britain in seizing American shipments on neutral ships to neutral countries as in the above cases on ground merely that shipments are consigned to order, the Government of the United States enters all explicit denial.
Assuming, as seems to be the case, that cargoes of vessels named were seized and are detained under the provisions of the proclamation referred to, Department directs that you deliver a note to the British Foreign Office in the sense of the foregoing, and ask for the release of the American cargoes on the ships named.
Other vessels now en route to neutral countries of Europe carrying American cargoes presumably will meet with like action by Great Britain, whose course towards shipments from this country to the neutral countries of Europe has already provoked sharp criticism in this country, and if persisted in will assuredly produce conviction that Great Britain attempts to prevent trade between the United States and countries in Europe not involved in war. Action of Department in giving publicity to announcements by Great Britain, particularly as to the guaranties which it had received from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark that reexportation of absolute and conditional contraband would be prohibited from their respective territories, is counteracted by the action of Great Britain in continuing to seize cargoes destined to these neutral countries, and suggest that arrangements by Great Britain with neutral countries contiguous to countries at war are not intended to facilitate neutral commerce but to add further checks in British interest against all trade with enemies of Great Britain. This suggestion is strengthened by the statement of the Foreign Office, reported in your November 30, No. 1163, respecting Italian decree.1 Consul General in possession of data which you may probably desire.