9451.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
19
Reference :--
C.O. 885
11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
M. LE MINISTRE,
Madrid.
I HAVE received instructions to express to your Excellency the satisfaction of Her Majesty's Government at the abrogation by the proclamation lately issued by General Caballero de Rodas, of General Dulce's decree of the 24th of March last.
At the same time, I am instructed to draw your Excellency's attention to certain points in the proclamation of General C. de Rodas which appear to Her Majesty's Government, if not more clearly defined, may yet lead to complications, the avoidance of which is so much desired by both Governments.
H
In the first article of the circular it is decreed that "vessels attempting to enter the ports which are closed, or to communicate with the coast, will be chased, and, if captured, will be tried, &c." I would here observe that the right of chase and capture of the Spanish Government is confined to their own territorial limits, viz., three miles from the shore, and it could not, therefore, be regarded as justifiable that a British vessel, even if she should have violated the Spanish regulations, should be chased and captured on the high seas.
Again, with regard to Art. 3, I have the honour to point out to your Excellency that the claim to treat vessels carrying contraband of war (whether military persons or otherwise) as enemy's ships, and consequently to treat their crews as enemies, i.e., as prisoners of war, is not supported by any recognised rule of international law; the carrying of this species of contraband may, indeed, under conceivable circumstances, be strong, possibly conclusive, evidence of the ship carrying them being an enemy's ship; but the terms of this article would authorise the Spanish Government to treat as prisoners of war the crew of a British ship on board of which a single Cuban insurgent might be found without any other evidence of her hostile character; in such a case the utmost to which Her Majesty's Government could be called upon to submit would be the confiscation of the ship; they could not submit to the crew being treated as prisoners of war.
With regard to the allusion in the sixth article to the rights of search under the treaty of 1835 with Great Britain, Her Majesty's Government are at a loss to under- stand how the rights of search conceded under that treaty can be applicable to the cases contemplated in the proclamation. As far as Her Majesty's Government under- stand that treaty, rights of search are only conceded in regard to vessels which "may, upon reasonable grounds, be suspected of being engaged in the traffic of slaves, or " of having been fitted out for that purpose, or of having, during the voyage on which they are met by the said cruizers, been engaged in the traffic of slaves contrary to the provisions of the treaty."
46
I am, therefore, to beg that your Excellency will have the goodness to make Her Majesty's Government acquainted with the views of the Spanish Government as to the intention of this article, for, if it is intended thereby to authorise cruizers to search British vessels on the high seas under any of the conditions of suspicion specified in the treaty mutatis mutandis as regards aid or supplies furnished to the insurgents, Her Majesty's Government fear that this article may be open to grave objection.
Such, M. le Ministre, are the views of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the decree of the Captain General of Cuba of the 7th of July last, which by direction of my Government I lay before your Excellency, and Her Majesty's Government feel con- fident that the Spanish Government, equally with themselves, are moved with an earnest desire to maintain inviolate the claims of international law and the stipulations of the treaty of 1835.
No. 594.
(CANADA.)
ATTORNEY GENERAL to COLONIAL OFFICE.
Temple, August 18, 1869.
MY LORD,
I AM honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified to me in a letter of the 17th instant, stating, first, that the writer was directed by your Lordship to trans- mit to me copies of a Confidential Despatch of the 2nd August, from the Governor General of Canada, and of the enclosed letter from Mr. Rose, in which it was suggested that the 300,000l. which had to be paid by Canada to the Hudson's Bay Company, in performance of one of the conditions of surrender of Rupert's Land, should be paid out of the Colonial funds in hand, which included part of the proceeds of the loan guaranteed by the Imperial Treasury for the Inter-Colonial Railway under 30 Viet. c. 16.
2. That it would be very desirable that the suggestion should be sanctioned, if possible, but some doubt was entertained whether such an employment, though tem- porary, of the proceeds of the Inter-Colonial Railway Loan would be in conformity with the above-mentioned Imperial Act.
3. That the writer was desired upon that point to refer me to my Report of the 28th June, and to request that I would favour your Lordship with my opinion at my very earliest convenience whether the suggested temporary application of part of the pro- ceeds of the Inter-Colonial Railway Loan could be legally made.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands I have the honour to
Report
That, in my opinion, the employment of a portion of the Inter-Colonial Railway Loan
in the manner suggested is not in conformity with the Imperial Act.
The Right Hon. Earl Granville, K.G.
0 16378.-600. 25-3/86.
I have, &c. (Signed) R. P. COLLIER.