On January 5 the mails and the passengers were released by order of the court and were taken on board the German warship, _Condor_, for Delagoa Bay. But not until two weeks later were the ship and its cargo released.[14] The only reason assigned by the court for the release was that no contraband had been discovered by the search. [Footnote 14: Ibid., p. 22; Hely-Hutchinson to Chamberlain, Jan. 18, 1900.] Since the three cases which attracted most attention, the _Bundesrath_, the _Herzog_, and the _General_, with a few unimportant exceptions as to details, were similar in regard to the points of law involved, the facts in the remaining cases will be outlined. It will then be possible to discuss the grounds upon which Great Britain asserted the right of seizure, and the objections which Germany made to the English assertion. 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 für Transvaal in Antwerp."[17] The other Red Cross expeditions were legitimate, one being German and the other Dutch. [Footnote 17: Ibid., p. 16.]