Mr. Adee to Mr. McCormick.
Washington, September 1, 1904.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your dispatch No. 178, of the 20th ultimo, in further reference to the case of the steamship Arabia.
Your dispatch referring to the confiscation of the portion of the cargo of the Arabia destined for Japanese ports mentions an unofficial allusion made by Count Lamsdorff to the possible misinterpretation of the Russian declaration as to contraband. You add that he had made the statement to you, referring to the decision of the prize court, that “it was a matter of interpretion.” If this statement was intended to convey the idea that as between the Russian Government and its prize court the decision of the court confiscating the portion of the cargo destined for Japanese ports was a matter of interpretation, the Department would not feel it necessary to take notice of [Page 764] the statement. But if the statement was intended to imply that the decision “was a matter of interpretation” as between the Government of the United States and the Russian Government, it could not be allowed to pass without particular observation. It is impossible to belittle the importance of the question involved by reducing it merely to a question of interpretation of the Russian imperial order of February 29, last. Underlying that order is involved an important principle of the law of nations. When this law is disregarded, as now appears to have been done, it raises a question which can only properly be settled between government and government, and in such a case the United States Government could not admit that a belligerent State may, merely of its own will, set up a novel principle in conflict with the settled law of nations. The United States Government, as you have already been instructed, is unable to admit the validity of the judgment of the prize court, considering the reason on which it is founded, and it hopes that the error of the court may be rectified by the decision of the council of the admiralty, to which an appeal will be taken by the interested American claimants as soon as can be done, considering the great distance from the scene of action and the difficulty of obtaining the details of information necessary to enable the parties to prosecute their appeal. The statement made to you by the Russian minister has been sufficiently disposed of in principle by the Department’s instruction of August 30, 1904, to which this instruction is added by reason of the communication of the statement mentioned.
You will take proper occasion to communicate the substance of this instruction, together with that of August 30, to Count Lamsdorff.
I have, etc.,
Acting Secretary.