Please inform Government to which you are accredited that the
Admiralty are issuing the following announcement:
During the last week the Germans have scattered mines
indiscriminately in the open sea on main trade route from
America to Liverpool via north of Ireland. Peaceful merchant
ships have already been blown up with loss of life by this
agency. The White Star liner Olympic
escaped disaster by pure good luck and but for warnings given by
British cruisers other British and neutral merchant and
passenger vessels would have been destroyed.
These mines can not have been laid by any German ship of war.
They have been laid by some merchant vessels flying neutral flag
which have come along the trade route as if for purposes of
peaceful commerce and while profiting to the full by immunity
enjoyed by neutral merchant ships have wantonly and recklessly
endangered the lives of all who travel on the sea regardless of
whether they are friend or foe, civilian or military in
character.
Mine laying under neutral flag and reconnaissance conducted by
trawlers, hospital ships, and neutral vessels are the ordinary
features of German naval warfare.
In these circumstances, having regard to the great interests
entrusted to the British Navy, to the safety of peaceful
commerce oh high seas, and to the maintenance within limits of
international law of trade between neutral countries, the
Admiralty feel it necessary to adopt exceptional measures
appropriate to the novel conditions under which this war is
being waged.
They therefore give notice that the whole of the North Sea must
be considered a military area. Within this area merchant
shipping of all kinds, traders of all countries, fishing craft,
and all other vessels will be exposed to the gravest dangers
from mines which it has been necessary to lay and from warships
searching vigilantly by night and day for suspicious craft.
All merchant and fishing vessels of every description are hereby
warned of the dangers they encounter by entering this area
except in strict accordance with Admiralty directions. Every
effort will be made to convey this warning to neutral countries
and to vessels on the sea, but from the 5th of November onwards
tine Admiralty announce that all ships passing a line drawn from
the northern point of the Hebrides through Faroe Islands to
Iceland do so at their own peril.
Ships of all countries wishing to trade to and from Norway, the
Baltic, Denmark, and Holland are advised to come, if inward
bound, by the English Channel and Straits of Dover. There they
will be given sailing directions which will pass them safely so
far as Great Britain is concerned up the east coast of England
to Farn Island, whence safe route will, if possible, be given to
Lindesnsæs Lightship. From this point they should turn north or
south according to their destination, keeping as near the coast
as possible. Converse applies to vessels outward bound.
By strict adherence to these routes the commerce of all countries
will be able to reach its destination in safety so far as Great
Britain is concerned, but any straying even for a few miles from
the course thus indicated may be followed by serious
consequences.
