APPENDIX IV. PROCLAMATION OF NEUTRALITY. Issued at the commencement of Hostilities between Russia and Turkey. VICTORIA, R. WHEREAS we are happily at peace with all Sovereigns, Powers, and States : And whereas, notwithstanding our utmost exertions to preserve peace between all Sovereign Powers and States, a state of war unhappily exists between his Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias and his Majesty the Emperor of the Ottomans, and between their respective subjects and others inhabiting within their countries, territories, or dominions: And whereas we are on terms of friendship and amicable intercourse with each of these Sovereigns, and with their several subjects and others inhabiting within their countries, territories, or dominions: And whereas great numbers of our loyal subjects reside and carry on commerce, and possess property and establishments, and enjoy various rights and privileges, within the dominions of each of the aforesaid Sovereigns, protected by the faith of treaties between us and each of the aforesaid Sovereigns: And whereas we, being desirous of preserving to our subjects the blessings of peace which they now happily enjoy, are firmly purposed and determined to maintain a strict and impartial neutrality in the said state of war unhappily existing between the aforesaid Sovereigns: We, therefore, have thought fit, by and with the advice of Our Privy Council, to issue this Our Royal Proclamation: And we do hereby strictly charge and command all our loving subjects to govern themselves accordingly, and to observe a strict neutrality in and during the aforesaid war, and to abstain from violating or contravening either the laws and statutes of the realm in this behalf, or the law of nations in relation thereto, as they will answer to the contrary at their peril : And whereas in and by a certain statute made and passed in a Session of Parliament holden in the 33d and 34th year of our reign, intituled, “An Act to regulate the conduct of her Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities between foreign states with which her Majesty is at peace," (Various things were declared and enacted.) 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 Sovereigns, their subjects 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 those belligerent rights which we and our Royal predecessors have always claimed to exercise. 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 Sovereign in a war between other Sovereigns, 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 Sovereigns, 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 Sovereigns; 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 nowise 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 Windsor, this 30th day of April, in the year of our Lord 1877, in the forticth year of our reign. God save the Queen. BELLIGERENTS AND NEUTRALS. The Earl of Derby, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has received from Her Majesty's Ambassador at St Petersburg the following Decree, which has been issued by the Russian Government for the guidance of the Russian authorities during the present war in matters relating to the Governments and subjects of Turkey and of the Neutral Powers, and defining the articles which are to be considered contraband of war : "In view of the state of war existing between Russia and Turkey, His Majesty the Emperor commands all the authorities and all military and civil functionaries concerned to act during this war in accordance with the hereinafter-mentioned dispositions, with regard to the hostile Power and its subjects as well as neutral States and their subjects. "I. The subjects of the Porte who reside in the Empire are authorized to continue during the war their stay and the practice of peaceful professions in Russia under the protection of Russian Laws. "II. With respect to Turkish merchantmen which at the time of the declaration of war happen to be in Russian ports and harbours, the regulation is confirmed in virtue of which they are free to leave these ports and to go to sea during the period necessary to enable them to load goods not comprising articles which are contraband of war. "III. The subjects of neutral States may continue uninterrupted commercial relations with Russian ports and towns, on condition that they observe the laws of the Empire and the principles of international law. "IV. The military authorities will take all the measures necessary to insure the freedom of legitimate neutral commerce as far as is permitted by the state of the war operations. "V. In the terms of the Declaration of Paris of the 4th (16th) of April, 1856, privateering is considered as abolished, and the issuing of letters of marque is forbidden. "In conformity with the same Declaration, the following rules should be observed with respect to neutral commerce : "1. The neutral flag covers the enemy's goods with the exception of contraband of war. "2. Neutral goods, with the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture under enemy's flag. "3. Blockades, in order to be binding, must be effective -that is to say, maintained by a force sufficient really to prevent access to the coast of the enemy. "These dispositions of the Declaration of Paris are applicable to all the Powers, including the United States of North America and Spain, who up to now have not adhered to this Declaration. "VI. The following articles are considered as contraband of war: "Small arms and artillery, mounted or in detached pieces; ammunition for fire-arms, such as projectiles, fuses for shells, balls, priming, cartridges, cartridge-cases, powder, saltpetre, sulphur, explosive materials and ammunition, such as mines, torpedoes, dynamite, pyroniline, and other fulminating substances; artillery, engineering, and transport materials, such as gun-carriages, caissons, cartridge-boxes, campaigning forges, canteens, pontoons, &c.; articles of military equipment and attire, such as pouches, cartridge-boxes, bags, cuirasses, sappers' tools, drums, saddles and harness, articles of military dress, tents, &c., and generally everything destined for military or naval forces. "These articles, when found on board neutral ships, and destined for an enemy's port, may be seized and confiscated, except the amount necessary for the use of the ship on which the seizure is made. "VII. The following actions, forbidden to neutrals, will be treated in the same way as carriage of contraband of war -the transport of enemy's troops, of despatches and correspondence, and the furnishing of ships of war to the enemy. "Neutral ships taken while committing such contraband acts may be, according to circumstances, seized, and even confiscated. "VIII. During the military operations on the Danube and on the banks of the river, the Commander-in-Chief of the active Russian Army is instructed to take all the measures he can to allow the navigation and legitimate commerce of neutrals on the river to be, as far as possible, free, and only to subject them to such temporary restrictions as the exigencies of war may render necessary, which restrictions are to be removed as quickly as possible. "IX. The military authorities will, moreover, specially protect the constructions, works, and staff of the European Danube Commission, covered by the special neutral flag of this Commission. "X. In accordance with the Convention of Geneva of the 10th (22nd) of August, 1864, with respect to the sick or wounded soldiers, the commanders of the belligerent armies are to respect the dispositions of this Convention, which render the enemy's hospitals, ambulances, and medical staff inviolable, on the condition of the enemy's reciprocity. "Remark.-When the Turkish Government shall have, with the previous consent of Russia, adopted in place of the Geneva red-cross flag a special distinctive badge for its hospitals and ambulances, the commanders of the belligerent armies will take all the measures necessary to insure the iu Short tion of Com mence ment of Act. Penalty violability of establishments and persons placed under the protection of this distinctive badge, in conformity with the Geneva Convention, if the stipulations of the latter are observed by the Ottoman authorities. "XI. In accordance with the Declaration of St Petersburg of November 29 (December 11), 1868, the use of projectiles of a less weight than 400 grammes which are either explosive or charged with fulminating or inflammable matter is absolutely forbidden. "XII. With the view of lessening the calamities of war and of bringing as much as possible, and under the reservation of reciprocity, the demands of war into harmony with those of humanity, the military authorities will conform with the spirit of the principles laid down by the Conference of Brussels in 1874, as far as they are applicable to Turkey, and agree with the special object of the present war1." AN ACT TO REGULATE THE CONDUCT OF HER [9th August, 1870.] WHEREAS it is expedient to make provision for the regulation of the conduct of Her Majesty's subjects during the existence of hostilities between foreign states with which Her Majesty is at peace: Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: Preliminary. 1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as "The Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870." 2. This Act shall extend to all the dominions of Her Majesty, including the adjacent territorial waters. 3. This Act shall come into operation in the United Kingdom immediately on the passing thereof, and shall be proclaimed in every British possession by the governor thereof as soon as may be after he receives notice of this Act, and shall come into operation in that British possession on the day of such proclamation, and the time at which this Act comes into operation in any place is, as respects such place, in this Act referred to as the commencement of this Act. Illegal Enlistment. 4. If any person, without the license of Her Majesty, on enlist being a British subject, within or without Her Majesty's 1 For which see Map of Europe by Treaty, Vol. 1. p. 1974. ment in |