Count Beust to Count Andrassy, May 10, 1872

No. 67. Count Beust to Count Andrassy.

In continuation of my respectful dispatch of the 6th March last, I will not omit to bring to the knowledge of your excellency, that, as Lord Granville communicated to me, Prince Bismarck has expressed himself in sentiments the very opposite of approval in regard to the announced communication of the agreement contained in the Washington treaty; and he has thereby adopted the view that the fundamental principles agreed upon in regard to the equipment of ships should also be extended to the carriage of arms. This is a request which Lord Granville declares to be impossible to comply with, in consideration of the difficulties which would accompany the requisite supervision over such.

Although I have not yet received any instruction in pursuance of my dispatch, still I believed that I was authorized on this occasion to express the sense of the concluding sentences, which, however, appeared in no way to surprise Lord Granville. The only remarks followed, that our demand for the freedom and security of private property on the sea would become a condition, also, for similar favors for private property on laud, which, in late wars, did not enjoy a corresponding protection. I did not wish to answer with a reference to the fact that in this respect no reproach rested upon ourselves, inasmuch as circumstances had caused that we did not come into a position of resisting such temptation; however, I did not allow the difference to pass unremarked, consisting in the fact that with the exception of when, under justifiable occurrences, private property for satisfying the necessities of war, and, accordingly, under circumstances compelling the same, is seldom seized, whilst the levy upon private property at sea admits no similar justification, but is partially the design, not the means of carrying on war.

Accept, &c., &c., &c.