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DETAILED ARRANGEMENTS.

Proclamation, couched in similar terms to that issued by His Majesty's Government. It will also be necessary to telegraph directions to the authorities at every port to detain all enemy vessels and all neutral vessels loaded with contraband.

34. A further telegraphic communication will be sent to each Dominion by the Secretary of State for the Colonies before the expiration of the three days' provisional detention, announcing the decision of His Majesty's Government consequent on the replies by the enemy Government regarding reciprocal treatment to British merchant- ships in the matter of “days of grace.'

35. It is evident that, if action is to be taken sufficiently promptly on the outbreak of war to ensure that no enemy merchant-vessel shall slip out of the port, the machinery required will have to be drawn up in time of peace and kept ready for immediate application. At the same time, however, it has to be borne in mind that secrecy is of the utmost importance, as it would be highly inconvenient, and probably prejudicial to the success of this policy in every part of the British Empire, if news of the arrangements made were to leak out in time of peace.

36. It will be for the Government of ench Dominion to decide how far it is safe to entrust detailed instructions to the local authorities at ports in the Dominions, or how far it is safe to rely on the central authority to act sufficiently promptly to prevent vessels escaping in the first few hours of a war.

37. In the case of the United Kingdom it has been decided to issue secret dormant instructions in time of peace to a responsible official at each important port, so that he may be conversant with the action required of him in time of war. A model of such instructions, which might serve as a basis for more detailed local instructions to be drawn up to suit the local conditions of ports in the Dominions, is attached in Appendix V.

38. Even if it is not considered desirable by the Government of any particular Dominion to issue such instructions in time of peace, it is important that they should be prepared and kept ready for issue to port authorities on the outbreak of war.

39. It is also important that a draft of an Order in Council or other legal instrument suited to the requirements of each particular Dominion, drawn up on the lines of that printed in Appendix I, should be prepared in time of peace, in order that as little delay as possible may occur after the receipt of the Secretary of State's telegram in giving effect to it. The various forms printed in Appendices II, III, IV, and VI to this Memorandum should also be printed and kept ready for issue.

2, Whitehall Gardens, S.W.,

C. L. O.

February 21, 1911.

[294]

D

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