Washington, 20th September.
The following is the text of the protest of the United States Government against the decision of the Russian Government with regard to the cargo of the steamship Arabia. It is in the form of a di patch from Mr. Hay to the American Ambassador in St, Petersburg, dated 30th August, and communicated by him to Count Lamsdorf:
The Department has carefully considered the note of the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, dated 27th July last, copy of which is enclosed with your dispatch, with reference to the decision of the Prize Court in the case of the steamship Arabia, containing Arerican go, seized by the Russian naval forces sent to Viadivostock for adjudication. As communicated to you by the Minister, the decision of the court was, "that the steamer Arabia was lawfully seized; that the cargo, composed of railway material and flour, weighing about 2,360,000. livres, destined to Japanese ports and addressed to different commercial houses in the said ports, constitutes contraband of war;.. that the cargo bound for Japanese ports should be confiscated as being a lawful the Minister observed, the request of this Government for the release of the non-contraband portion of the cargo, that the question could only be decided through judicial channels on the basis of a decision of the Prize Court.
This is the first authentic i which the Department has received of the precise grounds on which the Prize Court decided to confiscate the railway material and flour in question. The judgment of confiscation appears to be founded on the more fact that the goods in question wore bound for Japanese ports and addressed to various commercial houses in the said ports. In view of its well-known attitude, it should hardly seem necessary to say that the Government of the United States is unable to admit the validity of the judgment, which appears to have been rendered in disregard of the settled law of nations in respect to what contes contraband of war. If the judgment and the communication accompanying its transmission are to be taken as an expression of the attitude of his Imperial Majesty's Government, and as an interpretation of the Russisn Imperial Order of 29th February last, it raises " question of momentous import in its bearing on the rights of neutral commerce.
The Russian Imperial Order denounces as absolute contraband of war telegraph, telephone, and railway materials, and fuel of all kinds, without regard to the question whether destined for military or for purely pacific and industrial. uso Clause 5, Article 10, of the Imperial. Order denounces-s contraband of war
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.