CO885-(11-13) — Page 340

12,584.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

PICO. 885

12 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

SIB,

No. 113.

(BAHAMAB.)

FOREIGN OFFICE to COLONIAL OFFICE.

Foreign Office, October 18, 1876.

I AM directed by the Earl of Derby to state to you, for the information of the Earl of Carnarvon, that his Lordship has consulted the Law Officers of the Crown upon the questions raised by the Attorney-General of the Bahamas in the case of the

Amazona," which formed the subject of your letter of the 24th of August.

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The Law Officers, in their report upon the subject, express the opinion that the Attorney-General of the Colony did not give due weight to the interpretation clause (section 30) of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870.

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They consider that if the "Amazona is in the employment, or intended to be employed in the service, of the insurgents in Cuba, although the insurgents may not be in the strict sense of the word "belligerents," the case is brought within the

statute.

They point out that the case of the "Salvador" (see 3 Law Reports, Privy Council, page 218), though under the former Foreign Enlistment Act, was decided upon words almost, if not quite, the same as the words in the 30th section of the Act of 1870; and they hold that this case is a clear authority upon the point that, as in the 4th section of the Act of 1870, the insurgents are a foreign State" at war with a foreign State at peace with Her Majesty.

The Law Officers doubt whether the "Amazona," fitted out as a privateer and to be used in the service of an unrecognised nationality, could be dealt with as a piratical vessel.

They consider that the proceedings proper to be taken against her, if the facts should justify any proceedings when she arrives at the Bahamas, will be under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870.

The Under-Secretary of State, Colonial Office.

(Signed)

I am, &c.,

TENTERDEN.

19916.-11. 25.-19/64.

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