Show The Probable Instructions I Washington D C April 17 Officials I here profess to have Information yet I yet as to the instructions sent the British i Brit-ish war vessels for enforcement of the ultimatum against Nicaragua Those in a position to understand the status of affairs however express the belief that the British instructions are on the following fol-lowing lines I First There shall be no exercise of 1 force which shall fet the commerce or interests a the United Staieabr her citizens 1 citi-zens or of other foreign countries I Second The exercise of force shall be I confined to the execution of a passive I blockade of Nicaraguan ports according to the established rules for that maneuver maneu-ver verThe The passive blockade is designed to cripple the international commerce of Nicaragua rid yet leave all the foreign commerce to proceed as usual It does not contemplate any overt act or seizure or detention of property but the warships war-ships will bring to a standstill the local or coastwise trade and keepit thus paralyzed par-alyzed until a satisfactory response Is given Merchant ships of the United States and other countries would be freo to come and go and care would be taken I that no cause b given for the United States to Intervene on the ground that the United States interests are in jeopardy Jeop-ardy The last time this passive blockade block-ade was executed was against Greece ten years ago The allied powersof Europe Eu-rope except France agreed to suppress the action of Greece in beginning a war on Turkey The various countries sent war ships which blockaded Grecian ports and held all the coast commerce in check until Greece yielded Some authorities on International law hold thata passive blockade is equal t reprisal and subject to the rules of reprisals re-prisals The finances of Nicaragua are in such a shape as to raise a serious question of her ability to pay the Indemnity demanded demand-ed assuming that she was entirely willing ling to meet Great Britains demand So far as the state department knows Great Britain has not rejected Nicarag uas proposition made In answer to the British ultimatum to submit the claims for indemnity to arbitration The British Brit-ish embassy and the Nicaraguanl egatlon here were also at a late hour this afternoon after-noon without Information on this point although they have taken steps to ascertain ascer-tain the truth I Is still believed here that Great Britain will not act hastily in the matter and at the state department depart-ment there Is an impression that no serious seri-ous trouble will ensue |