to preventing misunderstanding in event of meeting belligerent warships, notice has been given to Governments of belligerents of the despatch of the convoy. Besides warship Hertog Hendrik,' under command of Captain de Joncheere, who is convoy commandant, the convoy will consist of steamship Tabanan,' transformed into auxiliary cruiser of Rotterdam-Lloyd, under command of Captain Goozen, and very probably steamer Noordam' of Holland-America Line as passenger ship, and steamship Bengkalis' of Nederland Company as collier. Ships will leave roadstead of Texel about middle of June, and, avoiding on voyage areas declared by belligerents to be dangerous, will proceed round Cape of Good Hope. Stock of coal will be replenished as far as necessary out of 'Bengkalis' either in neutral ports or at sea outside territorial waters of belligerents. Duration of voyage estimated at about three and a half months."

SIR,

(No. 10.)—Mr. Balfour to M. van Swinderen. Foreign Office, June 7, 1918. WHEN, on the 16th April last, the Netherlands Government, through their Minister of Marine, announced in the First Chamber of the Dutch Parliament their intention to despatch a convoy of Government goods and passengers to the Dutch East Indies, the British Government thought it right to lose no time in warning the Netherlands Minister for Foreign Affairs that they would be unable to recognise any claim for the immunity from visit and search of ships sailing under neutral convoy. The warning was conveyed to M. Loudon by His Majesty's Minister at The Hague on the 26th April, in the courteous form suited to such a communication to a friendly neutral Government. It was received without demur, and three days later you were good enough, on instruction from your Government, to inform me of the composition of the proposed convoy and of certain conditions in conformity with which the Netherlands Government intended to regulate the despatch of cargoes and passengers. The point which had formed the subject of the friendly warning conveyed by Sir W. Townley was not touched upon in your note, nor has it been referred to in any further communication addressed to the British Government.

2. It was therefore with considerable surprise that I received on the 31st ultimo, by telegraph from Sir W. Townley, a translation of an official notice published in the Dutch press that morning by the Ministry of Marine at The Hague, announcing among other things that "the commander of the convoy would not tolerate any examination of the convoyed

3. In the face of this announcement, so made, His Majesty's Government feel compelled to reiterate in the most formal manner that the right of visit and search which Great Britain, whether she was a neutral or a belligerent, has, in conformity with the rules of international law, consistently upheld for centuries, is not one which she can abandon.

4. As the Netherlands Government is, well aware, the claim that immunity from search is conferred on neutral merchant vessels by the fact of their sailing under the convoy of a man-of-war flying the national flag has never been conceded by this country. By the course, therefore, which they are now pursuing, they do in fact demand that Great Britain shall abdicate her belligerent right to stop contraband trade by the regulated exercise of naval force, and, in the middle of a great war, abandon the allied blockade. This is a demand to which Great Britain could not possibly accede. I have, &c.

ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.

SIR,

(No. 11.)-Mr. Balfour to Sir W. Townley.

Foreign Office, June 7, 1918. I TRANSMIT to you herewith a memorandum recording a confidential statement which, at my request, Lord R. Cecil made verbally to the Netherlands Minister at this Court to-day.

(Enclosure 1.)-Memorandum.

At the same time that the Netherlands Government announced in the press that the commander of the Dutch convoy would not allow the vessels composing the convoy to be visited and searched, they also proclaimed that it was not their intention to institute under the protection of their menof-war any commercial intercourse which, without such protection, would not be permitted by the belligerent according to their views of the commercial liberty of neutrals. The conditions and safeguards on which accordingly the Dutch authorities intend to insist were then outlined. It is to be gathered from the announcement that, partly by restrictions to be imposed on the status and character of the passengers and cargo to be transported, and partly by the submission to the belligerents for inspection and verification of ships' papers and other documents prior to sailing, the Netherlands Government propose to afford the belligerents practically the same guarantees and means of control as the belligerents might otherwise be able themselves to enforce by exercising the right of search.

Whilst this is the impression created by a perusal of the published announcements, it is somewhat difficult to reconcile it with the whole plan of the convoy. Clearly, if the belligerents are completely satisfied as to the innocence of particular ships, persons and cargoes, there can be no need for giving vessels thus admitted to be innocent the special protection of convoy. In fact, the sending of the convoy at all is hardly capable of explanation, except on the assumption that the convoyed vessels are to be protected in some transaction which the belligerents do not recognise as legitimate.

It may, perhaps, be assumed that the Dutch authorities failed to realise the logical consequences which a belligerent is bound to draw from their announcement, and His Majesty's Government are willing to believe that the safeguards and guarantees offered were in good faith expected to satisfy them, and that in regard to this particular voyage there was no need to resort to the machinery of visit and search in order to establish facts which the Netherlands Government were proposing to demonstrate in other ways. Such reasoning may have induced the conviction that the British Government would find no difficulty in waiving the exercise of their right, so that a public announcement could be safely made without risking an international complication: of the utmost gravity."

His Majesty's Government, whilst sincerely regretting that the Netherlands authorities should have adopted a course which appears to them to have been lacking both in courtesy and in prudence, are anxious, nevertheless, to take into account the de facto situation in which the Netherlands Government have now placed themselves by their own public announcement. His Majesty's Government cannot consent to any abatement of the right which they claim to search vessels under neutral convoy. The repression of contraband and the enforcement of blockade lie, by international law, with the belligerent alone and not with the neutral; and this fundamental principle Great Britain is quite determined to uphold with all the force at her command. It is important that the Netherlands Government should be under no misapprehension on this point.

If, however, the intention underlying the presentation of M. van Swinderen's note of the 29th April, and of communications in the same sense since made by M. Loudon to Sir W. Townley, was merely to suggest that a friendly arrangement might be arrived at between the two Governments under which such satisfaction would be given to legitimate belligerent, requirements as would justify the

with the formal exercise of their right of search, His Majesty's Government will not refuse to consider such suggestion. They desire, by adopting this conciliatory attitude, to give further practical evidence of their constant anxiety to maintain their relations with the Netherlands Government on the most amicable footing, and to show how far they are in fact willing to go out of their way in order to save the susceptibilities which the Dutch official announcement was calculated to arouse, and so to prevent the action of the Netherlands Government from definitely creating a situation gravely imperilling the friendly relations between the two countries.

But if for these motives and in these circumstances His Majesty's Government are to waive their right of search in this particular case, as an act of courtesy, they must lay stress on the altogether exceptional nature of such a concession, which must not be treated as a precedent for similar concessions in future, nor held to commit His Majesty'a Government in any way to the abandonment of their just claims on other occasions.

On this clear understanding His Majesty's Government are ready to state the conditions on which the convoy composed of the ships whose names have been notified might be allowed to pass without interference through the British patrols on the intended journey from Rotterdam or Amsterdam to the Dutch East Indies. These conditions will be found to conform substantially with the suggestions put forward by the Netherlands Government themselves, and should therefore meet with their ready acceptance.

(Enclosure 2.)-Statement of Conditions handed to M. van Swinderen on June 7, 1918.

(a.) A DETAILED list of all passengers sailing in the convoy, to be furnished to His Majesty's Government, none but Dutch Government officials and their families being allowed to proceed.

(b.) Full particulars of the cargo on board any merchant vessel sailing in the convoy to be supplied in the same way as is now done by the Netherlands Oversea Trust in respect of ships under their control.

(c.) The Netherlands Government to give a formal guarantee that no goods shipped in the convoy are either wholly or in part of enemy origin.

(d.) The ships sailing under the Dutch naval flag, including the converted liner, not to carry any civilian passengers, nor any goods or articles other than warlike stores

destined for the colonial authorities or forces, of which complete lists should be furnished.

(e.) No mails, correspondence, private papers, printed matter, or parcels to be carried by any ship in the convoy (except official despatches of the Dutch Government).

(f) The convoy not to sail until the above stipulated particulars and undertakings have been furnished and have been found satisfactory by the British authorities.

(No. 12.)-Sir W. Townley to Mr. Balfour.-(Received June 14.)

(Telegraphic.)

The Hague, June 14, 1918. MINISTER for Foreign Affairs told me yesterday that Netherlands Government are quite prepared to accept in their entirety conditions laid down by His Majesty's Govern. ment respecting sailing of convoy to Dutch East Indies. I gathered Netherlands Minister in London has received instructions in the same sense.

(No. 13.)-M. van Swinderen to Mr. Balfour.-(Received June 17.)

SIR, London, June 15, 1918. In reply to the note you were good enough to address to me on the 7th instant, I have the honour to inform you, in accordance with instructions received, that the Netherlands Government are pleased to see that both the British and the Netherlands Governments agree as to the mode of carrying out the plan for the convoy mentioned therein. The conditions stated correspond almost identically with the intentions communicated in my note of the 29th April last. A complete list of passengers had also been prepared, to be sent, together with full particulars of the cargoes, to all foreign Legations concerned, as the Netherlands Government wish to avoid even any possible impression that anything is being concealed. They cannot agree with the point of view that their readiness to conform to the views of the belligerents of the liberty of neutral commerce is difficult to reconcile with the whole plan of the convoy. The protection of the menof-war has the advantage of excluding all unnecessary delay. The Netherlands Government are fully aware that the British Government do not recognise the right of convoy upheld by the first-named Government and all other nations, but, in their opinion, this point of international law can be left out of account in the present case of a very special sort of convoy