Foreign Office defends the use of foreign flags

On 7 February 1915 the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Foreign Office, issued a statement defending the right of British merchant ships to fly the flags of neutral states. The next morning the text appeared in the London newspapers. The US ambassador, Walter Hines Page, forwarded it to Washington on 8 February, noting that the Foreign Office had confirmed its authenticity, although it had not communicated it to him officially.

The Lusitania affair

The statement was a response to the storm caused by the Admiralty’s advice of late January that British ships in the waters around the British Isles should fly neutral flags. Germany had cited it in its declaration of 4 February, warning that in the war zone neutral ships would not be safe either. The day before the statement, the Lusitania had entered Liverpool under the flag of the United States. As early as 6 February, when news of the voyage reached the press, a British official said unofficially that since Britain allowed foreign ships to use its flag to avoid capture, it was entitled to expect the same of others.

London’s arguments

The Foreign Office stated that the use of a neutral flag was, within certain limits, a ruse of war (ruse de guerre) well established in practice. Its only effect was that the enemy had to fulfil the ordinary obligations of naval warfare: before seizing a ship, to verify its nationality and the character of its cargo, and then to bring it before a prize court for judgement.

The British recalled that they themselves had always considered it permissible for foreign ships seeking to avoid capture to use the British flag. The Merchant Shipping Act of 1894 provided for the forfeiture of a ship that unlawfully claimed to be British, but excluded cases where this was done to escape an enemy or a foreign warship. A similar provision was contained in the 1914 instructions to British consuls. Since Britain did not object to such a stratagem by others, a British merchant ship did not violate international law either by flying a neutral flag for the same purpose.

The statement ended with an attack on Germany. International law, the customs of war and the dictates of humanity obliged belligerents to establish the character of a ship and its cargo before seizing it. The threat to destroy ships together with their non-combatant crews and cargoes was called by the Foreign Office plainly an act of piracy on the high seas.

Neutrals unconvinced

The British arguments did not reassure the neutral states. In their view a single stratagem at the moment of pursuit was one thing, and advice covering an entire merchant fleet over vast areas of sea quite another. If British ships began flying foreign flags en masse, German commanders would stop trusting any flag, and genuine neutral ships would become the victims. In the following days the Norwegian government announced that the Scandinavian countries would probably protest in London against the use of their flags, and the United States government was also preparing its position.