n this fact
would not have given England any right to interfere with neutral
commerce from one neutral port to another and insisted that the task of
preventing the transmission of contraband to the Transvaal lay with the
Portuguese Government.[12] The fact was also pointed out that when war
first broke out, the steamship company owning the _Bundesrath_ had
discharged shipments of a contraband character at Dar-es-Salaam as well
as at Port Said in order to obviate any possible complication, and since
then had issued strict orders that contraband should not be embarked.

[Footnote 12: Ibid., p. 7; Lascelles to Salisbury, Jan. 5, 1900.]

Great Britain expressed herself as "entirely unable to accede to ...
the contention that a neutral vessel was entitled to convey without
hindrance contraband of war to the enemy, so long as the port at which
she intended to land it was a neutral port."[13] The novel suggestion
was made by Germany that "the mail steamer be allowed to go on bail so
as not to interfere more than was necessary with her voyage," but the
English representative doubted the practicability of such a plan. He was
in favor of the suggestion if it could be adopted under suitable
conditions, but since the ship had probably gone into the hands of the
prize court, that tribunal, he said, would have to act independently.

[Footnote 13: Ibid., p. 7; Salisbury to Lascelles, Jan. 4, 1900.]

On January 5 the mails and the passengers were released by order of the
court and were taken on board the German warship, _Condor_, for Delagoa
Bay. But not until two weeks later were the ship and its cargo
released.[14] The only reason assigned by the court for the release was
that no contraband had been discovered by the search.

[Footnote 14: Ibid., p. 22; Hely-Hutchinson to Chamberlain, Jan. 18,
1900.]

Since the three cases which attracted most attention, the _Bundesrath_,
the _Herzog_, and the _General_, with a few unimportant exceptions as to
details, were similar in regard to the points of law involved, the facts
in the remaining cases will be outlined. It will then be possible to
discuss the grounds upon which Great Britain asserted the right of
seizure, and the objections which Germany made to the English assertion.

THE HERZOG.--On December 16, 1899, a cable from the commander-in-chief
of the Mediterranean station announced to the British Foreign Office
that the German "steamship" _Herzog_ had left the Suez Canal on the
t