File No. 763.72111/1223
The British Ambassador (Spring Rice) to the Secretary of State
Washington, December 18, 1914.
[Received December 19.]
No. 432]
Sir: For some days past the press of this country has reported various incidents of the violation of neutrality of the Panama Canal of which British ships have been accused and the Governor of the Panama Canal Zone has, it is stated, been obliged to ask for an armed force in order to put a stop to these alleged violations. Al though [Page 652] I have received no official representations from you, Sir, I thought it well to request from the British representative in Panama a report on the subject in order that I might be in a position to discuss the matter should it be brought officially to my attention. I now have the honour to state that I have to-day received an answer from Sir C. Mallet, the British Minister in Panama, which is to the following effect:
Facts are as follows: The steamship Mallina, an Admiralty collier, arrived here from Acapulco without a bill of health from the American consul. She was in consequence indicted for a violation of the quarantine regulations of the Canal Zone. A nominal fine of $50 was imposed on her by the court. At Balboa the master of the Mallina was ordered to sea early the next morning and notified the port captain accordingly. Clearance papers were ready, but it appears that the master had expected that they would he sent to him together with some stores which he had ordered from the commissariat of the Canal. Neither the stores nor the clearance papers arrived. He thus had to choose between a violation of the customs law and a violation of neutrality. Of these two courses he thought the wiser course was to choose the former, and accordingly left without his clearance papers.
It further appears that the Mallina was accused by his excellency Colonel Goethals, the Governor of the Panama Canal Zone, of having used her wireless installation within the limits of the Canal Zone and thus having violated the regulations governing the use of radio instruments in waters under American jurisdiction. As a matter of fact the Mallina has no installation for wireless telegraphy. A communication has now been received in writing from his excellency stating that he had been wrongly informed.
As far as I am aware no breach of neutrality of any kind has been committed by British vessels within the waters of the Canal Zone. British warships have no doubt when off the coast used powerful wireless telegraph installations and this may have given rise to the rumours current in the press. Neither the warships nor the colliers have, so far as I know, been guilty of any infringement of the regulations.
It will be in the recollection of your Department, as also of the Secretary for War, that I have on several occasions asked to be supplied with the regulations which as I understood were being prepared for enforcing neutrality in the Canal Zone. It was the desire of my Government that such information should be obtained as soon as possible in order that it might be communicated to British ships. On August 6 this Embassy addressed to you an urgent note1 enquiring whether any and, if so, what restrictions would be placed on belligerent vessels passing through the Panama Canal, and on the 12th, 13th, and 14th of the same month Mr. Barclay again spoke as to the necessity of issuing regulations for the Canal Zone without delay, in view of the short time remaining before the opening of the Canal. It was not until November 17 that the Embassy received the memorandum of the State Department dated November the 14th,1 enclosing copy of the rules and regulations governing the use of the Panama Canal by vessels of the belligerents and the maintenance of neutrality by United States in the Canal Zone.
On receipt of these regulations I telegraphed to my Government and also transmitted the regulations, which as you are aware are of some length, by post to London. My telegram only contained a brief summary. The regulations themselves could not have reached London before the last days of November, and it was materially impossible [Page 653] for ships which reached the Canal Zone in the first days of December to be cognisant of the full text.
The above facts, of which you will find proof in the archives of your Department, will show that this Embassy has, I trust, been guilty of no negligence in the communication of the regulations.
I now have the honour to appeal to your courtesy in order to be informed what charges, if any, have been brought by the United States authorities against British ships or officers for violations of the Canal Zone regulations in order that such charges may receive the fullest investigation. I trust I need not say that it is the desire of His Majesty’s Government that British ships and officers should conform in every way to every detail of the regulations imposed by the United States authorities under the authority of the President and in conformity with the treaty obligations of Great Britain.
I have [etc.]