10388.
No. 84.
(BARBADOS.)
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TC.O. 885
10 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
MY LORD,
LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.
Doctors' Commons, October 5, 1861. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 17th September ultimo, in which he stated that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us a letter from the Colonial Office, enclosing a copy of a letter from the Governor of the Windward Islands, reporting a conversation with the United States Consul respecting the course which would be taken by the British authorities in regard to privateers carrying the flag of the Confederate States.
Mr. Hammond was also pleased to state that your Lordship presumed that the Governor should be informed, in reply, that Southern privateers visiting colonial ports could not be treated as pirates merely because they sailed under the Confederate flag, inasmuch as Her Majesty's Government acknowledged the belligerent rights of the Southern States.
2. That privateers were subject to the same laws as ships of war sailing under com- mission; but if they plundered vessels under the British flag, instead of taking them into a port, whether belonging to the Confederate States or to some other country, and bringing them before a prize court, they must be treated as pirates.
3. That as regards the illegal or fraudulent use of the British flag, vessels of the so- called Confederate States and of the United States must be treated in the same manner, and that if any question were raised before a prize court touching the assumption of the British flag, that court would, it must be presumed, decide according to the law of
nations.
4. That if plunder were resorted to by the captors, the capturing vessels, if privateers, must be treated as pirates; if regular vessels of war, the Government by which they were commissioned must be appealed to.
Mr. Hammond was further pleased to state that your Lordship would be glad to be informed by us whether the foregoing statements might properly be communicated to the Governor of the Windward Islands for his information and guidance on the points adverted to in his letter, and whether they might also be communicated through the Board of Admiralty to the Admiral on the North American Station for his information and guidance.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands, we have taken these papers into con- sideration, and have the honour to
Report
That we are of opinion that the Governor of the Windward Islands and the Admiral on the North American Station may (if your Lordship thinks it requisite) be instructed:
1. The privateers, duly commissioned as such by the Government of the Confederate States, acting under the authority and using the flag of that Government, and capturing and taking into port for adjudication as "prize of war" vessels either sailing under the flag of the United States, or even British or other neutral vessels, having goods on board belonging to citizens of the United States or to persons (of whatever origin) domiciled in those States, or strongly suspected of having such, cannot be considered or treated as pirates, either in British waters or elsewhere, by British Colonial autho- rities or naval officers; nor will their being so considered by the United States Government or laws make any difference in this respect.
A pirate, by the law of nations, is a "common robber on the seas," acting without any commission from any established authority, but with a general design of indis. criminate plunder, without having recourse to any court whatsoever, and a privateer capturing, for the purpose of taking in for adjudication by a competent court, the ships or goods of those enemies of his belligerent Government exclusively, or those reasonably suspected of being such (against which he is commissioned and ordered to act), Caunot be treated as a pirate by neutrals agreeably to the principles of international law, even in the event of his committing certain irregularities in so doing.
0 16278,-806. 25.-2/86.