JUNE 23.] THE NEW ZEALAND GAZETTE. 1021

such person shall be deemed to have committed an offence against this Act, and the following consequences shall ensue:—

“ (1.) The offender shall be punishable by fine and imprisonment, or either of such punishments, at the discretion of the Court before which the offender is convicted; and imprisonment, if awarded, may be either with or without hard labour.

“ (2.) The ship in respect of which any such offence is committed, and her equipment, shall be forfeited to Her Majesty:

“ Provided that a person building, causing to be built, or equipping a ship in any of the cases aforesaid in pursuance of a contract made before the commencement of such war as aforesaid shall not be liable to any of the penalties imposed by this section in respect of such building or equipping if he satisfies the conditions following (that is to say):—

“ (1.) If forthwith upon a proclamation of neutrality being issued by Her Majesty he gives notice to the Secretary of State that he is so building, causing to be built, or equipping such ship, and furnishes such particulars of the contract and of any matters relating to, or done, or to be done under the contract as may be required by the Secretary of State:

“ (2.) If he gives such security, and takes and permits to be taken such other measures, if any, as the Secretary of State may prescribe for insuring that such ship shall not be despatched, delivered, or removed without the license of Her Majesty until the termination of such war as aforesaid.

“ Where any ship is built by order of or on behalf of any foreign State when at war with a friendly State, or is delivered to or to the order of such foreign State, or any person who to the knowledge of the person building is an agent of such foreign State, or is paid for by such foreign State or such agent, and is employed in the military or naval service of such foreign State, such ship shall, until the contrary is proved, be deemed to have been built with a view to being so employed, and the burden shall lie on the builder of such ship of proving that he did not know that the ship was intended to be so employed in the military or naval service of such foreign State.

“ If any person within the dominions of Her Majesty, and without the license of Her Majesty,—

“ By adding to the number of the guns, or by changing those on board for other guns, or by the addition of any equipment for war, increases or augments, or procures to be increased or augmented, or is knowingly concerned in increasing or augmenting, the warlike force of any ship which at the time of her being within the dominions of Her Majesty was a ship in the military or naval service of any foreign State at war with any friendly State,—

“ Such person shall be guilty of an offence against this Act, and shall be punishable by fine and imprisonment, or either of such punishments, at the discretion of the Court before which the offender is convicted; and imprisonment, if awarded, may be either with or without hard labour.

“ If any person within the limits of Her Majesty’s dominions, and without the license of Her Majesty,—

“ Prepares or fits out any naval or military expedition to proceed against the dominions of any friendly State, the following consequences shall ensue:—

“ (1.) Every person engaged in such preparation or fitting-out, or assisting therein, or employed in any capacity in such expedition, shall be guilty of an offence against this Act, and shall be punishable by fine and imprisonment, or either of such punishments, at the discretion of the Court before which the offender is convicted; and imprisonment, if awarded, may be either with or without hard labour.

“ (2.) All ships, and their equipments, and all arms and munitions of war, used in or forming part of such expedition, shall be forfeited to Her Majesty.

“ Any person who aids, abets, counsels, or procures the commission of any offence against this Act shall be liable to be tried and punished as a principal offender.”

And whereas by the said Act it is further provided that ships built, commissioned, equipped, or despatched in contravention of the said Act, may be condemned and forfeited by judgment of the Court of Admiralty; and that if the Secretary of State or chief executive authority is satisfied that there is a reasonable and probable cause for believing that a ship within our dominions has been or is being built, commissioned, or equipped contrary to the said Act, and is about to be taken beyond the limits of such dominions, or that a ship is about to be despatched contrary to the Act, such Secretary of State or chief executive authority shall have power to issue a warrant authorising the seizure and search of such ship, and her detention until she has been either condemned or released by process of law: And whereas certain powers of seizure and detention are conferred by the said Act on certain local authorities:

Now, in order that none of our subjects may unwarily render themselves liable to the penalties imposed by the said statute, We do hereby strictly command that no person or persons whatsoever do commit any act, matter, or thing whatsoever contrary to the provisions of the said statute, upon pain of the several penalties by the said statute imposed, and of our high displeasure.

And We do hereby further warn and admonish all our loving subjects, and all persons whatsoever entitled to our protection, to observe towards each of the aforesaid Powers, their subjects, citizens, and territories, and towards all belligerents whatsoever with whom We are at peace, the duties of neutrality; and to respect, in all and each of them, the exercise of belligerent rights.

And We hereby further warn all our loving subjects, and all persons whatsoever entitled to our protection, that if any of them shall presume, in contempt of this our Royal Proclamation, and of our high displeasure, to do any acts in derogation of their duty as subjects of a neutral Power in a war between other Powers, or in violation or contravention of the law of nations in that behalf, as more especially by breaking or endeavouring to break any blockade lawfully and actually established by or on behalf of either of the said Powers, or by carrying officers, soldiers, despatches, arms, ammunition, military stores or materials, or any article or articles considered and deemed to be contraband of war according to the law or modern usages of nations, for the use or service of either of the said Powers, that all persons so offending, together with their ships and goods, will rightfully incur and be justly liable to hostile capture, and to the penalties denounced by the law of nations in that behalf.

And We do hereby give notice that all our subjects and persons entitled to our protection who may misconduct themselves in the premises will do so at their peril, and of their own wrong; and that they will in no wise obtain any protection from Us against such capture or such penalties as aforesaid, but will, on the contrary, incur our high displeasure by such misconduct.

Given at our Court at Saint James’s, this twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-eight, in the sixty-first year of our reign.

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN!

—

The Right Honourable Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart. M.P., to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty* :—

Foreign Office, 23rd April, 1898.

My Lords,—Her Majesty, being fully determined to observe the duties of neutrality during the existing state of war between Spain and the United States of America; being, moreover, resolved to prevent, as far as possible, the use of Her Majesty’s harbours, ports, and coasts, and the waters within Her Majesty’s territorial jurisdiction, in aid of the warlike purposes of either belligerent, and to insure by every lawful means in her power the due observance by her subjects towards both belligerent Powers of the rules embodied in Article VI. of the Treaty of Washington, of the 8th May, 1871, copies of which are herewith enclosed, has commanded me to communicate to your Lordships, for your guidance, the following rules, which are to be treated and enforced as Her Majesty’s orders and directions:—

Rule 1.—During the continuance of the present state of war, all ships of war of either belligerent are prohibited from making use of any port or roadstead in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, or the Channel Islands, or in any of Her Majesty’s colonies or foreign possessions or dependencies, or of any waters subject to the territorial jurisdiction of the British Crown, as a station or place of resort for any warlike purpose, or for the purpose of obtaining any facilities for warlike equipment; and no ship of war of either belligerent shall hereafter be permitted to leave any such port, roadstead, or waters from which any vessel of the other belligerent (whether the same shall be a ship of war or a merchant ship) shall have previously departed until after the expiration of at least twenty-four hours from the departure of such last-mentioned vessel beyond the territorial jurisdiction of Her Majesty.

Rule 2.—If there is now in any such port, roadstead, or waters subject to the territorial jurisdiction of the British Crown any ship of war of either belligerent, such ship of war shall leave such port, roadstead, or waters within such time not less than twenty-four hours as shall be reasonable, having regard to all the circumstances, and the condition of such ship as to repairs, provisions, or things necessary for the subsistence of her crew; and if after the date hereof any ship of war of either belligerent shall enter any such port

• Similar letters have been addressed to the Treasury, Home Office, Colonial Office, War Office, India Office, Scottish Office, and Board of Trade.