CO129-435 - Governor Sir May & Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1916 [9-11] — Page 237

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(6)

by enemy firms for shipment after the war.

Trade letters from agents or firms in neutral countries

to German firms, ordering goods on a large scale for

delivery immediately peace is declared.

If the Council had been consulted before the joint British

and French note of the 3rd April,1916 was finally approved and

handed to the United States Ambassador, they would have been

inclined to suggest that the last paragraph should have been

worded in the following terms; -

" In these circumstances the allied Governments declare:-

1. (As in original)

2.

That the 11th Hague Convention of 1907 not having been

ratified by all the Fowers now at war, is not operative, and

that the question is accordingly governed by the principles

that were accepted prior to that date, and in accordance with

which letters and despatches were and are subject to seizure and

confiscation.

3. That for the present and solely as an act of grace the

allied Governments so far at least as genuine and innocent

private correspondence is concerned will act as if the 11th

Hague Convention were in force, but must specifically reserve to

themselves the right in case of military necessity to revert to

the full use of their legal belligerent rights.

4.

(As in the original 2).

5. That, in accordance with the concession notified above

the allied Governments will continue for the present to refrain

from confiscating genuine and innocent private correspondence

found on the high seas on board a neutral ship or enemy ship, and

will ensure its being forwarded as rapidly as possible, so soon

as its genuine and innocent character has been established.

The Council think it desirable to put forward now this

revised form of declaration because they do not consider it too

late to restore the discussion of this subject to the lines

from which, in their opinion, it should never have been allowed

to/