THE HERZOG.—­On December 16, 1899, a cable from the commander-in-chief of the Mediterranean station announced to the British Foreign Office that the German “steamship” Herzog had left the Suez Canal on the twelfth for South Africa carrying “a considerable number of male passengers, many in khaki, apparently soldiers” although “no troops were declared.”  On the same day an inquiry was made by the commander at the Cape whether “a number of passengers dressed in khaki” could be “legally removed” from the Herzog.[15] On the twenty-first the senior naval officer at Aden reported that the Herzog had sailed on the eighteenth for Delagoa Bay conveying, “probably for service in the Transvaal, about forty Dutch and German medical and other officers and nurses."[16] Although instructions had been issued on the first of January that neither the Herzog nor any other German mail steamer should be arrested “on suspicion only” until it became evident that the Bundesrath, which was then being searched, really carried contraband, the Herzog was taken into Durban as prize on the sixth by the British ship Thetis.

[Footnote 15:  Ibid. p. 1; Admiralty to Foreign Office, Nos. 1 and 2.]

[Footnote 16:  Ibid., pp. 2, 4, II.]

The consul at Durban as well as the commander of the German man-of-war Condor protested in the name of their Government against the seizure of the Herzog.  They urged that the vessel be allowed to proceed since her captain had given the assurance that there were no contraband goods on board; that the only suspected articles were the mails, and certain small iron rails and railway sleepers which were destined for the neutral port of Delagoa Bay.  On board the Herzog, however, there were three Red Cross expeditions, one of which had no official connection with the legitimate Red Cross societies.  It had no official character but had been organized by a committee, the “Hilfs Ausshuss fuer Transvaal in Antwerp."[17] The other Red Cross expeditions were legitimate, one being German and the other Dutch.

[Footnote 17:  Ibid., p. 16.]

On the seventh instructions were issued that the Herzog be released at once, unless guns or ammunition were revealed by a summary search.  But on the following day the order was added that proceedings might be discontinued and the ship released unless “provisions on board are destined for the enemy’s Government or agents, and are also for the supply of troops or are especially adapted for use as rations for troops."[18] On the ninth the Herzog was released, arrangements having been made two days before for the passage of one of the passengers, the Portuguese Governor of Zambesi, to Delagoa Bay by the Harlech Castle.

[Footnote 18:  Ibid., pp. 14, 16.]