welfth for South Africa carrying "a considerable number of male
passengers, many in khaki, apparently soldiers" although "no troops were
declared." On the same day an inquiry was made by the commander at the
Cape whether "a number of passengers dressed in khaki" could be "legally
removed" from the _Herzog_.[15] On the twenty-first the senior naval
officer at Aden reported that the _Herzog_ had sailed on the eighteenth
for Delagoa Bay conveying, "probably for service in the Transvaal, about
forty Dutch and German medical and other officers and nurses."[16]
Although instructions had been issued on the first of January that
neither the _Herzog_ nor any other German mail steamer should be
arrested "_on suspicion only_" until it became evident that the
_Bundesrath_, which was then being searched, really carried contraband,
the _Herzog_ was taken into Durban as prize on the sixth by the British
ship _Thetis_.

[Footnote 15: Ibid. p. 1; Admiralty to Foreign Office, Nos. 1 and 2.]

[Footnote 16: Ibid., pp. 2, 4, II.]

The consul at Durban as well as the commander of the German man-of-war
_Condor_ protested in the name of their Government against the seizure
of the _Herzog_. They urged that the vessel be allowed to proceed since
her captain had given the assurance that there were no contraband goods
on board; that the only suspected articles were the mails, and certain
small iron rails and railway sleepers which were destined for the
neutral port of Delagoa Bay. On board the _Herzog_, however, there were
three Red Cross expeditions, one of which had no official connection
with the legitimate Red Cross societies. It had no official character
but had been organized by a committee, the "Hilfs Ausshuss fuer Transvaal
in Antwerp."[17] The other Red Cross expeditions were legitimate, one
being German and the other Dutch.

[Footnote 17: Ibid., p. 16.]

On the seventh instructions were issued that the _Herzog_ be released at
once, unless guns or ammunition were revealed by a summary search. But
on the following day the order was added that proceedings might be
discontinued and the ship released unless "provisions on board are
destined for the enemy's Government or agents, and are also for the
supply of troops or are especially adapted for use as rations for
troops."[18] On the ninth the _Herzog_ was released, arrangements having
been made two days before for the passage of one of the passengers, the
Portuguese Governor of Zambesi,