File No. 763.72111Ap4/70
The British Ambassador ( Spring Rice ) to the Secretary of State
[Received April 1.]
My Dear Mr. Secretary: On February 3d last, I had the honour, under instructions from my Government, to request that if the Appam were regarded by the United States Government as a prize, she should be restored to her owners and the prize crew interned.
[Page 734]Since that date it has come to my knowledge that a proceeding has been brought in the Admiralty Court of the United States by the owners of the vessel for its restitution and that the court has taken jurisdiction of the suit. It appears that the vessel had been detained in an American port by the prize crew for more than two weeks before the suit was instituted. I am informed that the vessel was in a seaworthy condition when brought into port and that the time which elapsed before the beginning of the suit was more than sufficient to supply any deficiencies of coal and provisions. The detention of the vessel for such a period of time was therefore a violation of the neutrality of the United States under the law of nations as expressed in Articles 21 and 22 of Convention XIII as formulated at The Hague in 1907 and as previously understood and applied among the nations.
I understand that the Admiralty Courts of the United States have jurisdiction to decree the restitution to the owners of a prize brought into an American port by a belligerent captor when there has been a violation of American neutrality on the part of the captor. It seems to me desirable and proper that such violation of American neutrality should be called to the court’s attention, not only by the private owners of the captured vessel, but also by the official representatives of the United States Government.
I have therefore the honour to request that, if the United States Government do not see their way clear to direct by Executive order, as suggested in my note above referred to, the return of the vessel to her British owners, instructions may be given, should there be no objection, to the proper representatives of the Department of Justice of the United States to appear in their official capacity before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, in which the suit for the recovery of the S. S. Appam is pending, and to represent to that court on behalf of the Government of the United States, that the detention of the S. S. Appam under the circumstances above set forth constituted a violation of the neutrality of the United States and apply to the court to direct the return of the vessel to her owners upon due proof of their ownership and of the facts constituting the violation of neutrality above set forth.
I am [etc.]