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43327/13

No. 155A,

(GENERAL.)

[Arrest of fugitive criminals on German merchant ships in British territorial waters.]

GENTLEMEN,

FOREIGN OFFICE to LAW OFFICERS.

Foreign Office, December 4, 1911.

I HAVE the honour, by direction of Secretary Sir Edward Grey, to enclose, for your consideration, a selection of printed correspondence* which has passed between this Department, the Home and Colonial Offices, and His Majesty's Embassy at Berlin within the past few years, respecting futile attempts to effect the arrest of fugitive criminals on board of German merchant vessels calling at Southampton on their way from South Africa to Germany. The difficulties placed by the commanders of these vessels in the way of British police officers endeavouring to carry out their duty have, in two cases, enabled the fugitives concerned to evade the ends of justice, and His Majesty's Government have accordingly to consider what steps they can properly take to obviate a recurrence of such incidents.

The circumstances of the two cases referred to are as follows:--

On the 9th December, 1905, a telegram from Cape Town was received by the Agent-General for the Cape, stating that a warrant had been issued in the Colony for the apprehension of one Elias Goldstein, a Polish Jew, on the charge of fraudulent He was insolvency, an offence punishable with hard labour for twelve months. stated to be a passenger on the German liner" Ernst Woermann" due at Southampton on the 15th December, and it was requested that steps might be taken for his arrest on the arrival of the vessel at that port, with a view to his rendition to Cape Colony under the provisions of the Fugitive Offenders Act. The Agent-General thereupon communicated with the authorities at Scotland Yard, and, as a result of this communication, a provisional warrant of arrest was issued at the Bow Street Police Court on the 12th December. What subsequently happened is explained in detail in the extract of the police report (Enclosure 4 in No. 1 of Print). A Metropolitan Police officer proceeded from London to Southampton on the 14th December, where he called upon the Chief Constable of Hampshire, who detailed a detective-sergeant to assist him in executing his provisional warrant. He also called upon the German Consul at Southampton, who gave him a letter, in German, addressed to the captain of the "Ernst Woermann." That vessel duly arrived in Southampton Water, and shortly after 6 a.m. on the 16th December the two police officers went out in the tender to where the Ernst Woermann was lying off Netley Hospital. There they handed the letter from the German Consul to the officer (Captain Schade) in command of the vessel, and they also found Goldstein, with his wife and child, on board travelling second class to Hamburg.

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Captain Schade refused to allow the officers to take the fugitive off the ship, on the ground that he was a German on a German vessel. (As a matter of fact, he was not a German, but a Russian, subject.) Goldstein declined to go on board the tender, and the police officers had no alternative but to return to shore, and the vessel proceeded on its voyage. The subsequent efforts of this Department to trace the man's movements on the Continent with a view to his possible extradition thence proved abortive, and nothing more was heard of him.

The circumstances of the second incident are set out in detail in the enclosures in the Home Office letter of the 1st February, 1909 (No. 18 of Print). Stated shortly, they are as follows:-

At 6.30 p.m. on the 23rd December, 1908, a telegram was received at Scotland Yard from the Attorney-General, Cape Town, requesting the arrest of William and Christoffelina Elizabeth Hoffmann, of whom the first named was believed to be a German. They were charged with the offence of forgery and uttering at Cape Town, and were reported to be passengers on the German steamship Bürgermeister," due at Southampton the following day.

Confidential, No. 10161•,

(109-2.) Wt. 183-722, 25. 1/14. D&S. G 2.

CE

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference—

PLEC.O.885

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16 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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