A BRITISH NOTE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 12, 15 January 1915, Page 2

A BRITISH NOTE.

PRESENTED1 TO AMERICA

In view of the stage that has been readied in the controversy between the United States and Britain m regard to the search of neutral merchantmen, it is interesting to recall that some weeks ago the British Ambassador at Washington, Sir Cecil Spring-Rice, presented a Note to the United States in regard to the delay- j ing of the steamer Rockefeller, which had a cargo of oil, and was bound for a port in the neighborhood of sthe ? chief naval port of ■ one of the j belligerents, and in course of it made some interesting statements on the 'subject of contraband. He pointed out thait, whereas the value of the United States exports of the principal articles for September had decreased j by 30 per cent., the export of gasolene, naphtha, etc., to neutral countries in direct communicaition with belligerent nations had increased 15. per cent., and that of oil had in-, creased, by .61 per cent. He added that, according to the evidence in possession of the British authorities, a large proportion of these exports had been eventually transmitted to a belligerent country. And at this point Sir Cecil drew attention to a fact which the reader might well bear in mind when reviewing the present attitude-of the United Sjtates. The Ambassador reminded the Government that during the American Civil War the Supreme Court of the United States held that vessels were ,to be considered as carrying contraband, although sailing from one neutral port to another, where the goods concerned were destined to be transported by land or sea .from the neutral ports of, landing into enemy territory ; the view of the Court being that the character of the goods was determined by their ultimate and not their immediate-destination. "This doctrine," remarked the Ambassador, significantly, "was acquiesced in by ; Great Britain, though her own trade 1 was the chief sufferer." j