CASE PRESENTED ON THE PART OF THE GOVERNMENT OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY TO THE TRIBUNAL OF ARBITRATION, CONSTITUTED UNDER ARTICLE 1 OF THE TREATY CONCLUDED AT WASHINGTON ON THE 8TH MAY, 1871, BETWEEN HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. GENERAL CONTENTS. The case now presented to the arbitrators on the part of the government of Her Britannic Majesty comprehends a statement of the facts which that government Regards as material to a just adjudication on the claims of the United States, and of some general propositions on which it intends to rely, believing them to be in accordance with the principles of international law and the practice of nations. THE CONTENTS OF THE CASE ARE AS FOLLOWS: 1. A statement of the matter referred to the arbitrators, as it is understood by III. A further introductory statement on international rights and duties; on the IV. Considerations proper to be kept in view by the arbitrators in entering on the cases of the vessels specifically mentioned in the four following parts, V, VI, VII, and VIII, Part IV, pages. V. Statement of facts relative to the Florida, Part V, pages. VI. Statement of facts relative to the Alabama, Part VI, pages. VII. Statement of facts relative to the Georgia, Part VII, pages. VIII. Statement of facts relative to the Shenandoah, Part VIII, pages. IX. Recapitulation of the material facts stated in the preceding parts, Part IX, pages. X. Remarks in conclusion, Part X, pages.. 166-168 411-413 THR APPENDIX TO THE CASE CONSISTS OF FOUR VOLUMES, THE CONTENTS OF WHICH ARE AS FOLLOWS: Vol. I. Correspondence relating to the Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Shenandoah. (See vol. I, pages 217 to 1002 of this edition.) Vol. II. Correspondence relating to the Sumter, Nashville, Georgiana, Phantom Southerner, Alexandra, and other vessels respecting which representations were made by the Government of the United States to that of Her Britannic Majesty during the civil war. (See vol. II of this edition.) Vol. III. Papers relating to the commencement of the civil war; proclamations and regulations issued by the governments of Great Britain and other countries during that war; the neutrality laws of the United States and of Great Britain; judgments delivered by the British Court of Exchequer and by the Supreme Court of the United States; correspondence between the Government of the United States and the governments of Spain and Portugul relative to the fitting out of privateers in the ports of the firstnamed country; and the report of the royal commission appointed to inquire into the character, working, and effect of the British laws for the enforcement of neutrality. (See vol. III, pages 1 to 395, of this edition.) Vol. IV. General correspondence on the "Alabama claims," presented to Parliament. (See vol. III, pages 397 to 965, of this edition.) PART I. STATEMENT OF THE MATTER REFERRED TO THE ARBITRATORS, AS IT IS UNDERSTOOD BY THE GOVERNMENT OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY. The government of Her Britannic Majesty, in proceeding to state, for the information of the tribunal of arbitration, the facts PART L-Introducand arguments which appear material to a just adjudication tory statement. on the claims to be presented by the Government of the United States, finds it necessary to remark, in the first place, that no definite and complete statement of those claims, with the grounds on which they are founded, has ever been furnished by the latter Government. A general definition of them is, however, supplied by the terms of the reference to arbitration contained in Articles I to XI of the treaty of Washington, (8th May, 1871,) coupled with the previous correspondence between the two governments. The parts of the treaty to which Her Britannic Majesty's government particularly refers are the following: ARTICLE I. Whereas differences have arisen between the Government of the United States and the Government of Her Britannic Majesty, and still exist, growing out of the acts committed by the several vessels which have given rise to the claims generically known as the Alabama claims: and whereas Her Britannic Majesty has authorized her High Commissioners and Plenipotentiaries to express in a friendly spirit the regret felt by Her Majesty's Government for the escape, under whatever circumstances, of the Alabama and other vessels from British ports, and for the depredations committed by those vessels: now, in order to remove and adjust all complaints and claims on the part of the United States, and to provide for the speedy settlement of such claims, which are not admitted by Her Britannic Majesty's Government, the High Contracting Parties agree that all the said claims, growing out of acts committed by the aforesaid vessels, and generically known as the Alabama claims, shall be referred to a Tribunal of Arbitration, to be composed of five Arbitrators, to be appointed in the following manner: ARTICLE II. The Arbitrators shall meet at Geneva, in Switzerland, at the earliest convenient day after they shall have been named, and shall proceed impartially and carefully to examine and decide all questions that shall be laid before them on the part of the Governments of Her Britannic Majesty and the United States respectively. All questions considered by the Tribunal, including the final award, shall be decided by a majority of all the Arbitrators. ARTICLE VI. In deciding the matters submitted to the Arbitrators they shall be governed by the following three rules, which are agreed upon by the High Contracting Parties as rules to be taken as applicable to the case, and by such principles of international law not inconsistent therewith as the Arbitrators shall determine to have been applicable to the case: RULES. A neutral Government is bound First. To use due diligence to prevent the fitting out, arming, or equipping, within i's jurisdiction, of any vessel which it has reasonable grounds to believe is intended 10 cruise or to carry on war against a Power with which it is at peace; and also to use like diligence to prevent the departure from its jurisdiction of any vessel intended to cruise or carry on war as above, such vessel having been specially adapted, in whole or in part, within such jurisdiction, to warlike use. Secondly. Not to permit or suffer either belligerent to make use of its ports or waters as the base of naval operations against the other, or for the purpose of the renewal or augmentation of military supplies or arms, or the recruitment of men. Thirdly. To exercise due diligence in its own ports or waters, and, as to all persons within its jurisdiction, to prevent any violation of the foregoing obligations and duties. Her Britannic Majesty has commanded her High Commissioners and Plenipotentiaries to declare that Her Majesty's Government cannot consent to the foregoing rules [2] as a statement of "principles of international law which were in force at the time when the claims mentioned in Article I arose, but that Her Majesty's Government, in order to evince its desire of strengthening the friendly relations between the two countries and of making satisfactory provision for the future, agrees, that in deciding the questions between the two countries arising out of those claims, the Arbitrators should assume that Her Majesty's Government had undertaken to act upon the principles set forth in these rules. And the High Contracting Parties agree to observe these rules as between themselves in future, and to bring them to the knowledge of other maritime Powers, and to invite them to accede to them. ARTICLE VII. The decision of the Tribunal shall, if possible, be made within three months from the close of the argument on both sides. It shall be made in writing, and dated, and shall be signed by the Arbitrators who may assent to it. The said Tribunal shall first determine as to each vessel separately whether Great Britain has, by any act or omission, failed to fulfill any of the duties set forth in the foregoing three rules, or recognized by the principles of international law not inconsistent with such rules, and shall certify such fact as to each of the said vessels. In case the Tribunal find that Great Britain has failed to fulfill any duty or duties as aforesaid, it may, if it think proper, proceed to award a sum in gross to be paid by Great Britain to the United States for all the claims referred to it; and in such case the gross sum so awarded shall be paid in coin by the Government of Great Britain to the Government of the United States at Washington within twelve months after the date of the award. ARTICLE X. In case the Tribunal finds that Great Britain has failed to fulfill any duty or duties as aforesaid, and does not award a sum in gross, the High Contracting Parties agree that a board of assessors shall be appointed to ascertain and determine what claims are valid, and what amount or amounts shall be paid by Great Britain to the United States on account of the liability arising from such failure as to each vessel, according to the extent of such liability as decided by the Arbitrators. * * ARTICLE XI. The High Contracting Parties engage to consider the result of the proceedings of the Tribunal of Arbitration and of the Board of Assessors, should such board be appointed, as a full, perfect, and final settlement of all the claims hereinbefore referred to; and further engage that every such claim, whether the same may or may not have been presented to the notice of, made, preferred, or laid before the Tribunal or Board, shall, from and after the conclusion of the proceedings of the Tribunal or Board, be considered and treated as finally settled, barred, and thenceforth inadmissible. The second of the above "Rules" is understood by Her Majesty's gov ernment as prohibiting the use of the ports or waters of the neutral for the renewal or augmentation of military supplies or arms, only when such supplies or arms are for the service of a vessel cruising or carrying on war, or intended to cruise or carry on war, against either belligerent; and as not prohibiting any sale of arms or other military supplies in the ordinary course of commerce; and Her Majesty's government have no reason to believe that it is otherwise understood by the Government of the United States. The claims, then, which are referred to the tribunal are "claims growing out of the acts of" certain vessels, in respect of which the Government of the United States alleges that Great Britain has failed to fulfill some international duty. The duties specifically mentioned, and to which the attention of the tribunal is directed, are duties to be performed by a "neutral government" as such. As to each vessel separately, the tribunal is to determine whether there has or has not been any failure of duty on the part of Her Majesty's government. If, in the judgment of the tribunal, there has been such a failure in respect of any specified vessel or vessels, the tribunal may adopt, at its discretion, either of two courses. It may, on the one hand, award such a gross sum as the arbitrators may deem just to be paid by Great Britain, in full satisfaction of all well-founded claims on the part of the United States, "growing out of the acts" of the vessel or vessels in respect of which there has been a failure of duty; or, on the other hand, it may content itself with deciding, as to each or any vessel in respect of which there has been a failure of duty, the measure or extent of the liability which on general principles may justly be deemed to have been incurred by such failure. In the event of the second course being chosen, the office of examining and adjudicating on the validity of particular claims "growing out of the acts" of the specified vessel or vessels, and of fixing the sum or sums of money to be paid on account of each, according to the measure of liability laid down by the tribunal, is remitted to a board of assessors, for constituting which provision is made by Article X. In effect, therefore, the tribunal is called upon to determine whether, in respect of certain vessels not designated by name, the government of Great Britain, as a neutral power, has made default in the performance of any international obligation due from that power to the United States. Should this question be answered in the affirmative, the tribunal is then to form a judgment on the extent of the liability, if any, incurred by the default, and is either to award a gross sum in satisfaction of all just claims, or to define the general limits of the liability as to each vessel for the guidance of the assessors. The claims which may be presented to the tribunal, and to which alone it is to have regard in *making its award, are claims "growing out of the acts" of the vessels (if any) in respect of which a failure of duty shall be proved. The vessels to which this inquiry relates are (as has been already remarked) not designated in the treaty by name; they are only indicated by reference to a particular class of claims, to which their "acts” are said to have given rise. These claims are assumed in the treaty to have become familiar to both governments, in the course of the correspondence which has passed between them, under the general title of the "Alabama Claims." They are assumed to form a distinct class, well known, and easily separable from the mass of miscellaneous claims arising from other sources, for which latter a different mode of settlement is provided by Articles XII to XVII of the treaty. The Alabama was a vessel which sailed from the port of Liverpool, under circumstances which will be stated below, and was afterward employed as a cruiser in the naval service of the Confederate States. The phrase "The Alabama claims" is understood by Her Britannic Majesty's government to embrace all claims "growing" (to use the language of the treaty) "out of acts committed by" this vessel, and by other vessels which are alleged to have been procured, like the Alabama, from British ports during the war, and under circumstances more or less similar, and to be confined to such claims. The only vessels in respect of the acts of which claims have been made by the Government of the United States on that of Her Britannic Majesty, either during the civil war or in the six years which have elapsed since its termination, are the Alabama herself, and the vessels formerly known as the Florida, Georgia, and Shenandoah. On one occasion, indeed, since the close of the war, namely, in a dispatch dated 27th August, 1866, and communicated by the minister of the United States to Her Majesty's government, men |