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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 12TH JUNE, 1897.
Any person who aids, abets, counsels, or procures the Commission of any offence against this Act shall be liable to be tried and punished as a principal offender.
And whereas by the said Act it is further provided that Ships built, commissioned, equipped, or despatched in contravention of the said Act, niay be condemned and forfeited by Judgment of the Court of Admiralty; and that if the Secretary of State or Chief Executive Authority is satisfied that there is a reasonable and probable cause for believing that a Ship within Our Dominions has been or is being built, commissioned, or equipped, contrary to the said Act, and is about to be taken beyond the limits of such Dominions, or that a Ship is about to be despatched contrary to the Act, such Secretary of State, or Chief Executive Authority, shall have power to issue a Warrant authorizing the seizure and search of such Ship and her detention until she has been either condemned or released by process of law.
And whereas certain powers of seizure and detention are conferred by the said Act on certain Local Authorities;
Now, in order that none of Our Subjects may unwarily render themselves liable to the penalties imposed by the said Statute, We do hereby strictly command that no person or persons whatsoever do commit any act, matter, or thing whatsoever contrary to the provisions of the said Statute, upon pain of the several penalties by the said Statute imposed, and of Our high displeasure.
And We do hereby further warn and admonish all Our loving subjects, and all persons whatso- ever entitled to Our protection, to observe towards each of the aforesaid Sovereigns, their subjects and territories, and towards all belligerents whatsoever with whom we are at Peace, the duties of neutrality; and to respect, in all and each of them, the exercise of those Belligerent Rights which We and Our Royal Predecessors have always claimed to exercise.
And We hereby further warn all Our loving Subjects, and all persons whatsoever entitled to Our protection, that if any of them shall presume, in contempt of this Our Royal Proclamation, and of Our high displeasure, to do any acts in derogation of their duty as subjects of a Neutral Sovereign in a War between other Sovereigns, or in violation or contravention of the Law of Nations in that behalf, as more especially by breaking, or endeavouring to break, any Blockade lawfully and actually estab lished by or on behalf of either of the said Sovereigns, or by carrying Officers, Soldiers, Despatches, Arms, Ammunition, Military Stores or Materials, or any Article or Articles considered and deemed to be Contraband of War according to the Law or modern Usages of Nations, for the use or service of either of the said Sovereigns, that all persons so offending, together with their ships and goods, will rightfully incur and be justly liable to hostile capture, and to the penalties denounced by the Law of Nations in that behalf.
And We do hereby give notice that all Our Subjects and Persons entitled to Our protection who may misconduct themselves in the premises will do so at their peril, and of their own wrong; and that they will in nowise obtain any protection from Us against such capture or such penalties as afore- said, but will, on the contrary, incur Our high displeasure by such misconduct.
Given at Our Court at Windsor, this third day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand
eight hundred and ninety-seven, in the sixtieth year of Our reign.
GOD save the QUEEN.
The Marquess of Salisbury to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty* :-
MY LORDS.
Foreign Office,
May 3, 1897.
Her Majesty being fully determined to observe the duties of neutrality during the existing state of war between His Imperial Majesty the Sultan of Turkey and His Majesty the King of the Hellenes, and being moreover resolved to prevent, as far as possible, the use of Her Majesty's harbours, ports, and coasts, and the waters within Her Majesty's territorial jurisdiction, in aid of the warlike purposes of either belligerent, has commanded me to communicate to your Lordships, for your guidance, the following rules, which are to be treated and enforced as Her Majesty's orders and directions :-
Her Majesty is pleased further to command that these rules shall be put in force in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, on and after the 8th instant, and in Her Majesty's territories, and possessions beyond the seas, six days after the day when the Governor, or other chief authority of cach of such territories or possessions, respectively, shall have notified and published the same; stating in such Notification that the said rules are to be obeyed by all persons within the same
erritories and possessions.
* Similar letters have been addrowed to the Treasury, Home Office, Colonial Office. War Office. Iulian Office, and Scottish Office.