File No. 763.72112/372a
The Acting Secretary of State to the Argentine Minister (Naón)
Washington, November 9, 1914.
My dear Mr. Minister: In compliance with your request of to-day to be informed as to the position of the United States in the matter of detentions by British authorities of vessels carrying alleged contraband of war, I would advise you that this Government has stated its position in reference to vessels detained, pending the receipt of guaranties regarding the non-exportation of their cargoes, in order that His Britannic Majesty’s Government might not labor under the misapprehension that the United States admitted the propriety of their action. This Government stated that under the existing rules of international law and usage the neutral owner of articles on a neutral vessel bound to a neutral port, which articles under certain conditions might acquire the character of contraband, is not responsible for their future disposition by the government of the neutral port of their destination, or by the person to whom they are bona fide consigned in the ordinary course of trade. The treatment which such goods may receive after delivery to the consignees in a neutral country is a matter between the belligerent government investigating the shipment and the neutral government concerned, for which a bona fide shipper should not be made to suffer. In the opinion of this Government, the belligerent right of visit and search requires that the search should be made on the high seas at the time of the visit and that the conclusion of the search should rest upon the evidence found on the ship under investigation and not upon circumstances ascertained from external sources. That evidence, in [Page 433] the view of this Government, should make out a prima facie case to justify the captor in taking the vessel into port. To take vessels into custody and send them into a port of the belligerent without prima facie evidence to impress the cargo with the character of absolute or conditional contraband constitutes, in the opinion of the United States, a justifiable ground for complaint by a neutral government, and a basis for a legal claim for damages against the belligerent government which has detained the vessel for the purpose of inquiry through other channels as to the ultimate destination of the cargo or as to the intended action of the government of the neutral country of destination.
This Government therefore reserved on behalf of its citizens interested in any such vessels or cargoes the right to hold His Britannic Majesty’s Government responsible in damages, and requested that this method of detention be discontinued, and that visit and search of vessels be made at sea with the greatest expedition possible under the circumstances.
I am [etc.]