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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.885
Reference :-
14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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GENTLEMEN,
the
No. 86A.
(JAMAICA.)
FOREIGN OFFICE to LAW OFFICERS.
Foreign Office, May 6, 1895.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you, by direction of the Earl of Kimberley, papers noted in the accompanying list, which relate to a claim for compensation ou account of the detention of the British schooner "Lottie May." at Ruatan Island, Spanish Honduras, and the imprisonment of her master, E. S. Bodden,
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The master's account of what occurred is as follows (see Paper A) :- Tho "Lottie May arrived at Ruatan Island in July, 1892, at a time when a rebellion was in progress, the northern mainland ports of the Republic being in the hands of the rebels.
After selling his cargo Mr. Bodden asked for a clearance for the north of the island, which was refused by the Acting Commandant of the port.
He then applied for a clearance for Grand Cayman, a British possession. This the Acting Commandment also refused, saying that he would not grant a clearance for any port. The master then said that he would go to Truxillo to report himself to Her Majesty's Consul, whereupon the Acting Commandant declared that if he left Ruatan without permission he would sink his ship.
The master then returned to his ship. Some time after, five armed men came on board with a message to him from the Acting Commandant to follow them on shore.
Bodden complied, and on landing was arrested and put into prison, where he was kept for six days.
On the second day, in consequence of the unhealthiness of his place of incarceration, he was taken ill, but no notice was taken of his request for medical assistance. On the sixth day he was liberated, returned on board, and left Ruatan.
The mate and a seaman of the "Lottie May" deposed to the arrest, but were ignorant of what happened on shore at the time of the application for a clearance (Enclosure in Paper B).
The matter was referred to Mr. Gosling, Her Majesty's Minister in Central America, for a report, and on the 23rd February 1893 (Paper C, Enclosure 5), he represented it to the Honduranean Government, asking for an investigation and pecuniary satisfaction, if the facts, which were alleged, should turn out to be true.
The master claimed 2,3001. compensation, and the owners 1,134, but Mr. Gosling appears only to have advanced the latter claim.
In reply (Paper C, Enclosure 2), the Honduranean Government refused to entertain either claim, stating that the facts precluded them from making an analysis of the case, and that the proceedings of the authorities could not be otherwise than approved by them, since (1) clearance was requested for places occupied by parties who had risen in arms against the order of things legally established in the country, and not for the north of the Island of Ruatan, as alleged; and (2) during the continuance of a state of siege.
Certified copies of the evidence which the Honduranean Government had caused to be taken were furnished with their reply (Paper C, Enclosure 4), including that of the Acting Commandant Fuentes, who had refused the clearances.
The Acting Commandant states that he was given strict orders not to allow any vessel to sail for any place during six days, with a view to preventing the transmission of information to the enemy who were in possession of Truxillo and La Ceiba, ports in the north of Honduras, that the master of the "Lottie May" first asked for a clearance for the north coast of the island (not, it is observed, for the north coast of the mainland of Honduras, as stated by the Foreign Minister), that this was refused, and that the master then asked for a clearance for Truxillo, which was also refused, that Bodden then became irritated and used offensive language about the Honduranean flag, and said he would leave with or without a clearance, in consequence of which he was put under arrest.
The other witnesses, Reyes, Yates, and Rivera, state that the clearance was refused because the port for which it was requested was in the hands of the enemy. They make no mention of a clearance having been requested for the north of the island or for Grand Cayman, but the master's statement that he first applied for a
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85965.-29. 25.-1/96.