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Show British Warships Active in Orient Stop All Vessels, and, Remove Ger mane' and Austrians Therefrom Honolulu, T. H. Aug. 31. The America linen 'Manchuria had Cab na'of'tha Pacific Mali (Mieip company's ortsMal let wrfe'lijlUd, by Brills warsWpf e -Hoaffoaf and forced to surrender to ihe Brit ish authorities sixty Genoa ad 'Austrian 'Aus-trian reservists bound 'for theBuro-pean theBuro-pean war from the Philippines, where they had been living. This wai ihe news brought by Captain Thompson and Purser Landers of the China, which arrived here today, bound for Shn Francisco. After first Inquiring of Washington If they wqre safe in an American registered vessel, according to officers offic-ers of the China and having received assurances that they could not be molested the Germans and Austrians took passago for San Francisco via Hongkong, Shanghai, Nagasaki and Honolulu. This roundabout route was necessary because they knew they cduld not reach home via the Suez canal and neither the China nor the Manchuria were scheduled to call ht Manila on the return trip. On arriving, at Hongkong tbe ves sels were halted by ships' of the British Brit-ish fleet, tbe passengers were summoned sum-moned for inspection and required to give their nationalities at the call of the purser's roll. Those who appeared to be Germans or Austrians and could not prove otherwise oth-erwise were taken in a navy tender to Stone Cutters' Island for detection. detec-tion. x Two Germans aboard the China claimed Swiss citizenship and were not held. All German residents of Hongkong, Captain Thompson reports, have been held. Manila newspapers of August S arriving ar-riving hero confirm the captain's story. They Bay that after tho Manchuria Man-churia had sailed from Manila a rumor ru-mor gained circulation there of a plan to urrest tho Germans on board tho Manchuria after she reached Hongkong and that on this account it was understood sho would not touch there, but would make Shanghai dl-, rcct. This courso, howover , 'war, not followed. , Washington, Aug. 31. Removal of German and Austrian subjects by British warships from neutral vessels ves-sels bound for tho scone of war Is a, prlvilego of tho belligerent powers, according to an opinion expressed today to-day by Robert Lansing, counsellor of tho state department. Vessels flying tho American flag with foreigners abroad, ho said, might bo stopped and such passengers removed. Washington, Aug. 31. Stato department de-partment officials did not regard as unusual the reported removal of German Ger-man nnd Austrian reservists from American ships off Hongkong, provided pro-vided tho incident occurred within the three milo limit of the British port. Inasmuch as Hongkong Is under un-der British Jurisdiction her warships could arrest the nationals of any belligerent bel-ligerent within territorial waters. What might be the opinion of the American government If the reservists reserv-ists were taken from American ves sols on tho high seas Is undetermined. undetermin-ed. Stato department officials said tonight no complaint of that character charac-ter had been placed beforo them. Tho right of search for contraband cargoes on tho. high seas Is accorded by all nations to belligerent ships;a but tho right to take a passenger from a neutral ship on the high seas has long been in dlsputo and no official of tho department was willing to express ex-press any opinion. |
