10740.
10
No. 665.
(NEW SOUTH WALES.)
LAW OFFICERS to COLONIAL OFFICE.
MY LORD,
Temple, October 6, 1870. We are honoured with your Lordship's commands, signified in Sir Frederic Rogers' letter of the 5th October instant, stating that he was directed by your Lord- ship to request that we would favour you with our opinion on the 3rd Article of the enclosed letter from Lord Granville to the Lords of the Admiralty.
and
That a French sloop-of-war carries the mails between Sydney and New Caledonia, your Lordship was desirous of knowing whether the fact of the vessel being so employed should exempt her from the restrictions imposed by the above article to the effect that ships of war of a belligerent were not to be supplied with coal more than once in three months, and then with no more than sufficient to carry her to the nearest port of her own country.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to
Report
That the vessel in question, so long as she is not diverted from her especial duty of carrying the mails, should be exempt from the restrictions imposed by the 3rd Article of Lord Granville's letter.
Independently of considerations touching the true scope of those restrictions, the purport of which was to prevent any abuse of the hospitality of a neutral nation by belligerent oruizers for purposes of war, it would be, in our opinion, contrary to the spirit of the Postal Convention between Great Britain and France of September 24th, 1856 (X. Hertalet, p. 108), to apply any such restrictions to French postal packets touching at British ports on the service of the mails.
We have, &c. (Signed)
The Right Hon. the Earl of Kimberley,
&c.
&c.
&o.
R. P. COLLIER. TRAVERS TWISS. J. D. COLERIDGE,
0 16978.-784.
25.----5/86.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O. 885
Reference :--
11 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO