File No. 841.711/160a

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Page)

[Telegram]

2657. Department advised that British customs authorities removed from Danish steamer Oscar II 734 bags parcel mail en route from United States to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; that British port authorities have removed from Swedish steamer Stockholm 58 bags parcel mail en route Göteborg, Sweden, to New York; that 5,000 packages of merchandise, American property, have been seized by British authorities on the Danish steamer United States on her last trip to the United States; that customs authorities at Kirkwall, on December 18, seized 597 bags of parcel mail from steamer Frederik VIII manifested for Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. Other similar cases might be mentioned, such as that of the steamer Hellig Olav. Department inclined to regard parcel-post articles as subject to same treatment as articles sent as express or freight in respect to belligerent search, seizure, and condemnation. On the other hand, parcel-post articles are entitled to the usual exemptions of neutral trade, and the protests of the Government of the United States in regard to what constitutes the unlawful bringing in of ships for search in port, the illegality of so-called blockade by Great Britain, and the improper assumption of jurisdiction of vessels and cargoes apply to commerce using parcel-post service for the transmission of commodities. Please bring this matter of parcel post formally to the attention of the British Government.

[Page 592]

The Department is further informed that on December 23 the entire mails, including sealed mails and presumably the American diplomatic and consular pouches, from the United States to the Netherlands, were removed by British authorities from the Dutch steamer Nieuw Amsterdam; that on December 20 the Dutch vessel Noorder-dijk was deprived at the Downs of American mail from the United States to Rotterdam, and that these mails are still held by British authorities. Other similar instances could be mentioned, as the cases of the steamers Rotterdam and Noordam. The Department can not admit the right of British authorities to seize neutral vessels plying directly between American and neutral European ports without touching at British ports, to bring them into port, and, while there, to remove or censor mails carried by them. Modern practice generally recognizes that mails are not to be censored, confiscated, or destroyed on high seas, even when carried by belligerent mail ships. To attain same end by bringing such mail ships within British jurisdiction for purposes of search and then subjecting them to local regulations allowing censorship of mails can not be justified on the ground of national jurisdiction. In cases where neutral mail ships merely touch at British ports, the Department believes that British authorities have no international right to remove the sealed mails or to censor them on board ship. Mails on such ships never rightfully come into the custody of the British mail service, and that service is entirely without responsibility for their transit or safety.

As a result of British action, strong feeling is being aroused in this country on account of the loss of valuable letters, money orders, and drafts, and foreign banks are refusing to cash American drafts, owing to the absence of any security that the drafts will travel safely in the mails. Moreover, the detention of diplomatic and consular mail is an aggravating circumstance in a practice which is generally regarded in this country as vexatiously inquisitorial and without compensating military advantage to Great Britain. Please lay this matter immediately before the British Government in a formal and vigorous protest and press for a discontinuance of these unwarranted interferences with inviolable mails. Impress upon Sir Edward Grey the necessity for prompt action in this matter.

Lansing